Max
by Jordiscy
Summary: The Academy's favorite golden retriever gets his own adventure.
1. Chapter 1

_Boys are stupid._

Jessica was convinced of it. Micah and Tom didn't understand that all she wanted was to be included, to have friends at home too. It was exhausting to have to be carted away to other friends' houses all the time when she wanted to hang out. Her classmates at her private school lived too far away. She couldn't always get rides either, not with her mom working weird shifts as a nurse, and Kota always getting called away by his weird teacher.

The preteen girl resolved to remedy her own problem of loneliness and reach out to the other kids that were her own age in the neighborhood. Her choices were limited to Micah and Tom. There were other kids living on Sunnyvale Court, but they were all under the age of ten, still in elementary school, and practically still in diapers. Jessica wanted to have friends, not to play an older sister role.

She was already acquainted with the two twelve year-old boys that lived across the highway. They knew her, and she knew them. That was kind of hard to avoid when they lived in the same area for as long as they could remember, especially when those two were constantly on her street with Derrick or out in the woods to find trouble.

She just needed to reach out and make some kind of connection with them. Just approaching them out of the blue and blatantly stating that she wanted to be friends wouldn't work. That tactic was for elementary school kids. Jessica was a young woman now. She had to find a way to stick her foot in the metaphorical door with those two boys, using…what was it that Kota called it? Social engineering? That Academy taught him weird things.

One of Jessica's friends at school passed onto her a shiny stone that was circulating among all the girls in her grade. It was said the rock glued to a necklace chain was magical and granted one wish to girls with pure hearts. The trinket kept getting passed around as everyone wondered if they were pure enough to incite its magic powers or not. Most were disappointed. Others swore by it. This time, it was Jessica's turn to find out. She was going to use it as the icebreaker to have an excuse to hang out with Micah and Tom.

Who could say no to the intrigue of magic they could hold in their own hands?

Jessica learned the answer right away: those two. They laughed in her face and snatched the rock out of her hand when she did tell them about it. Micah started a game of Monkey in the Middle, and guess who the monkey was? They repeatedly tossed the necklace high over her head, only to throw it again the moment she turned to try and charge at the boy who had it. Derrick was the one to end the game by appearing out of nowhere and hitting the boys on the back of the head, chastising them to be nice to girls.

Jessica ran home the moment Derrick gave the stone back to her.

Kota was home and heard her come in. One of his friends was with him. Jessica could hear them talking about her just outside her door after she slammed it shut. Nathan was concerned for her, but Kota told him to keep his distance for now. Kota said that girls just need some time alone to get it all out sometimes. They went back up to his room upstairs after that.

 _Stupid Kota._

Her older brother wasn't wrong, but sometimes a girl didn't truly want to be alone when she was upset. Sometimes she just needed a hug. Or a shoulder to cry on.

As if to answer her longing, she heard her door being nudged and quick sniffing down by the floor. Max.

Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Jessica slipped off her bed and opened her door to let the golden retriever in. She left the door open by an inch, just enough for him to be able to nose his way out when he wanted.

Immediately, Max started nudging her hand with his wet, black nose, trying to comfort her and let her know that he cared for her.

"Oh, Max!" Jessica patted the top of her covers to give the dog permission to hop on her bed, which he instantly did. Her hands wrapped around his reddish yellow fur, and she cried. Max licked her arm several times.

"Max, you're my only friend here. I wish you were a person," she stuttered out between her sobs.

Jessica's eyes were clamped shut, so she didn't see the stone dangling from her fingers glow brightly for a few seconds, then dim back to its original state.


	2. Chapter 2

Kota cringed at the loud beeping coming from his phone. The alarm woke him after five and a half hours of sleep. That was the most sleep he had managed to grab all week, but his body protested. That wasn't enough rest.

Sleep was never high on his priority list. Sleep was currently #7. Kota had to wake up and take care of priority #3: preparedness, and #2: mission. Kota had to drive out to Charleston proper and pick up a crate of peripheral surveillance supplies: six spools of data wire, two dozen bracket kits, and three boxes of 200 count screws. This was a special delivery, because the type of brackets were specialized. The order could easily be searched up, and the paper trail traced. So Academy overkill procedure had the lot go through various proxies and holds until the trail went dead.

Luckily, he could also fulfil a favor for another team in the area and pickup another package that was going through a similar trail of being lost before it got to where it needed to go. The contents weren't his business. He just needed to stash the box in the back of the walk-in cooler at Bob's Diner. Luke, North, and any of his other brothers could keep tabs on the parcel for two weeks until someone else came to pick it up to take it to its next destination. Kota wouldn't know who to release the package to until the day of the exchange. Mr. Blackbourne would not release that intel any sooner.

Kota reached over to grab his phone and stop the alarm. His blurry vision saw a blob of blonde hair on a body lying on the floor and tucked up against the bed frame. Kota lay back down with his phone in hand, green eyes blinking unfocused at his bedroom ceiling.

Through a yawn, he mentally went down the checklist of his Academy family.

One…himself, who was home and just waking up.

Two, Nathan. He was in his home, sleeping, based on his last check in late last night.

Three, Victor. Probably pulling an all-nighter at his dragon desk to complete some other Academy work for another team. He really needed the favors.

Four, Luke. His last check in was at Nathan's where he was spending the night along with Sang.

Five: Gabriel. Sleeping at his home. Pam was spending the night away at her current boyfriend's place. There was no need to worry about him.

Six was North, and he was on the overnight stakeout job. He took over Kota's shift earlier in the night, watching the house of some Academy adoptee to see if the fourteen year old daughter was sneaking out as her parents slept.

Seven. Silas. Home with his father, Charlie.

Eight. Dr. Green got off his hospital shift sometime while Kota was sleeping. Kota assumed he went straight to his condo for sleep.

Nine. Mr. Blackbourne. Out doing whatever Mr. Blackbourne does.

Ten. Sang. Sleeping comfortably in the company of Nathan and Luke.

Then why was Luke on Kota's bedroom floor? Luke knew he could at least pull out the trundle bed and sleep there. Luke was odd.

"Luke," Kota grunted in a scratchy voice. The teen figured he was so tired, he slept with his mouth wide open and snoring again. He coughed lightly and swallowed several times to warm his throat up as he swung his pillow around to chuck it at his friend. "Luke! Why are you here?"

The blonde grunted from the pillow attack and rolled over to lie flat on his back. He was stark naked. Kota made a mental note to counsel Luke about nudity while in the company of others, then briefly wondered if his friend managed to lose a bet or a dare. That would explain his state and presence in his bedroom.

Kota put his black frame glasses on his nose and blinked several times for his eyes to refocus through the lenses.

That wasn't Luke.

Kota's Academy training paid off. Upon identifying the presence of a threat, he didn't think. His body immediately reacted, lunging forward to tackle the naked man on the floor. With textbook jiu jitsu maneuvers he and Nathan practiced together, Kota had the home intruder kissing the carpet. Kota's knee was pressing in between the perpetrator's shoulder blades, and one of his arms was bent behind his bare back in an arm lock.

The stranger yipped and only managed to wiggle uselessly in resistance.

How did a naked, adult male, approximate age of 28, and six feet tall manage to infiltrate the Lee residence? Kota's dog was trained to guard against intrusions like this. The golden retriever was the perfectly trained security dog.

If this invader hurt his dog, Kota didn't know what he was liable of doing to this man.

"Max!" Kota screamed at his stairway that led out of his room to the rest of the house.

The man under his knee grunted.

"Shut up," Kota hissed. "Max!" he called again for his faithful dog. The door at the bottom of the stairs was purposefully left ajar to allow Max to enter Kota's bedroom while the teen slept last night. Either the home invader closed the door fully when he came up, or he neutralized the canine. Kota didn't hear the patter of paws ascending the steps. There wasn't whining or barking in the hallway either.

Kota had to count to fifty before he could formulate words. "If you hurt Max…"

He didn't need to worry about Jessica or his mom. Jessica asked to be taken to a friend's house for an impromptu sleepover after her emotional breakdown yesterday. Erica was a work. His girls were safe.

"Max!" he yelled once more, desperation clearly evident in his voice.

"Kota…" the stranger whined as he wiggled more to no avail.

"I said to shut up!" Kota barked harshly.

The wiggling stopped.

With a free hand, Kota reached for his phone and redlined Nathan.

"What did you do to Max?" Kota asked, aware he just commanded the man to contradict the previous instruction.

"Max is good," the man answered. His voice was shaky in fear.

Kota knew there was no way Max could be 'good'. Even if this man managed to get Max outside and tethered to the backyard lead, Max would be barked his furry head off to alert Kota that the home had been breached. The property outside of that bedroom was deathly quiet.

Kota's phone rang, and he answered it before the first tone finished singing. "Luke. I have a home invasion. Grab a zip tie in my garage on the way over."

"Right," Luke answered with only a trace of sleep left in his words. The line clicked dead, and Kota knew both Luke and Nathan would be here within minutes. If they managed to wake Sang in the excitement, his brothers would most likely request her to stay in bed and get more sleep. Sang, though, with her heart three sizes too big for her petite body, would insist in coming over anyways to offer her own assistance.

"Kota," the man whined again quietly. "Max is a good boy."

Nope. Kota wasn't about to let any psychological manipulation or plays on his emotions compromise his hold o the captured perpetrator. Mr. Blackbourne was the master of that tactic and trained them all against it. He taught them to never lose sight of the priorities.

Two minutes and thirteen seconds since the redline, and Kota heard the commotion in the garage under his room. That was an excellent response time, but they were much too noisy in their entry and search for the requested item.

"Found them!" Sang's voice chirped through the carpet.

"Go! Go! Go!" Nathan barked. Three pairs of feet thundered up the stairs, and the blonde man started wiggling again.

Heads popped into view one by one. Number 4, number 2, then 10.

"Need to check…" the stranger whispered with his face still smooshed on the floor.

The three other teens stared for 3.5 seconds, observing the situation.

"What the fuck?" Nathan cried, wearing red gym shorts and a plain white t-shirt.

"Friend," the stranger whispered to himself.

"Why is he naked?" Luke asked in nothing but pajama pants.

"Friend," the man repeated.

"Are you okay?"" Sang inquired with her fist in front of her throat. She was dressed in black cotton shorts and a light pink camisole. No one wore shoes.

"Girlfriend," he said so quietly, only Kota could make it out.

Kota reeled back in surprise, unintentionally releasing the man's arm from the lock position.

Nathan jumped into action and tackled the invader, whipping around so the naked man was on his back. Nathan wrapped himself around an arm and locked his ankles together over the guy's shoulders in an arm bar. He arched his back and straightened his legs just enough to put pressure in the wrong ways on the stranger's elbow and shoulder.

Luke was covering Sang's eyes with his hands. Based on the blush that was creeping down past her collar bones, Luke wasn't fast enough with his censorship.

The man cried out as his arm was trying to bend backwards. "Max is a good boy!" he yelled through gritted teeth.

Kota stood and shook out his legs. "Luke, help Nathan get him secured to the computer chair. Sang, can you get a sheet from my closet, please? I need to make a couple phone calls."

Luke turned Sang away from the rest of them and made sure she was pointed toward the closet before nudging her in the small of her back. "Just stay in there until one of us can grab it and cover him up, Cupcake."

First, Kota called Victor and got him to take over Kota's pickup jobs in the city. Victor just managed to finish up his other job and could easily take up the slack. The second phone call woke up Mr. Blackbourne, which was odd because Kota was convinced the man never slept.

Mr. Blackbourne instructed Kota to try and figure out why the man was there, but not to call the police until after they managed to remove Sang from the property. He didn't need to say that he trusted Kota to come up with an excuse to Sang to preserve her ghost status in this situation.

By the time Kota ended the call, the man was secured in the chair like he had requested. The plain white top sheet was draped over the stranger's lap to hide his nakedness.

Luke was giggling. That wasn't surprising. "Is your integrity still intact, Kota?" the long haired teen asked. "Can you sit down comfortably?"

Nathan karate chopped the back of Luke's neck. Sang understood what Luke was implying and stared at Kota with her eyes impossibly wide and mouth hanging open.

Kota rolled his eyes before reaching to tap Sang's chin. She obediently closed her mouth.

The man whimpered and looked up at the crowd of teenagers with big, sad eyes the color of honey. "Max is a good boy," he repeated, the bass notes of his voice coming out more than the tenor overtones.

"What are you doing in my house?" Kota asked with a glare.

Those honey eyes focused solely on Kota. "Max guard. Max protect. Max loves Kota."

Kota's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion mixed with disgust. What was the obsession with his dog? "What did you do to Max?"

The man's head tilted to the side, and damn him, it reminded Kota of the same way Max's head tilted when Kota counted out loud. "Max sit. Max stay."

Nathan picked up the role of bad cop and grabbed a fistful of the guy's orange-blonde hair, forcing his head back. The man cried out, his adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"Start giving us straight answers!" Nathan yelled. "What do you want? What are you doing here?"

Sang squeaked and hid behind Kota's shoulder.

The man's eyes homed in on her and started struggling against the zip tie holding his wrists together behind the computer chair. "Sang scared. Need to touch her…"

Nathan punched the stranger across the jaw. "You're not touching her!"

"How do you know her name?!" Kota shouted at the same time.

The stranger yipped again before settling into moans from the pain of the strike to his face.

Sang gasped and leaped forward to hang off Nathan's arm. "Stop! You don't need to hit him!"

Kota scoffed. Her heart was too big for her own good. "Sang," he called to her as he placed his hands on her tiny shoulders and tried to guide her back away from their prisoner. "He's not supposed to be here. We can't go easy on him."

She shook her head. "He can't touch me. You guys made sure of that. But we're not going to find anything out if you're hitting him. He's defenseless right now." She released Nathan's arms and faced the stranger. "We just need to ask him the right questions."

"Sang," Nathan whined. "He's obviously crazy. He can't answer anything straight."

She huffed and narrowed her eyes at Nathan. "Crazy people make sense to themselves. It's all a matter of perspective." She looked to Kota. Her green eyes were sparkling with thoughts running through her mind. "He keeps talking about Max. Where is Max?"

Kota's fists clenched as his assumptions came to the forefront of his mind. "I don't know."

Luke without question turned on his heel and shot down the stairs to search the house for the golden retriever.

"Max stay," the man said quietly while looking at Sang. "Max stay."

Her fingertip tapped at her bottom lip. "He's saying that Max is here."

Nathan threw his hands up in the air and started pacing back and forth across the room. "Max is obviously _not_ here."

The stranger's honey eyes lowered in sadness. Sang noticed.

"He believes that Max is here. Is Max in this room?" she asked.

"Max stay," he replied sadly.

She kneeled in front of him and looked up into his downcast face. "Do you know who I am?"

Kota stepped close, his hands tense and ready to grab her and yank back if the man even dared to breathe on her wrong.

"Sang," the man answered.

"Good," she praised him like he was a child. "Who is this?" With a thumb, she pointed at Kota right behind her.

"Kota. Max loves Kota."

"Oh my god!" Nathan grumbled while running his hands through his auburn hair, making it stick out in odd directions.

Sang ignored his outburst. "And who are you?" she cooed.

"Max," he answered in a way that sounded like his very soul was broken.

Luke bounded up the stairs two at a time. "Max is nowhere on the property. Not inside, or out," he announced.

Sang stood up and turned to face all three boys. "Yes, he is. This man is Max."


	3. Chapter 3

Luke bounded up the stairs two at a time. "Max is nowhere on the property. Not inside, or out," he announced.

Sang stood up and turned to face all three boys. "Yes, he is. This man is Max."

All three teenage boys erupted in shouts, expressions angry. Behind Sang, the man whimpered.

Sang held her ground in between the stranger tied up in the chair and her three friends, who were trying to loudly logic some sense into her head. There was no way she could compete with their bellows; her throat still cut out into harsh croaks whenever she tried to get loud or too high in pitch. So she did a trick one of her elementary school teachers used to gain the attention of rambunctious seven years old right after snack time: clap in rhythm to a little diddy.

The little song performed by her hands left her palms tingly, but it worked. Four sets of eyes were focused on her, and two heads were tilted with curious attentiveness. Only one of those heads belonged to Max. Kota was the other. He had to have picked up the habit from living with his dog.

"Let me rephrase," Sang said while rubbing the sting out of her hands. "He _believes_ he is Max. He is absolutely convinced of it. Just watch his body language. He's not lying."

"Bullshit," Nathan spat. "He's just a pervert trying to make a sick move on Kota. Or Jessica. Or Erica. He needs to be put in a strait jacket and tossed into a padded cell before he rapes someone."

Kota's ears were turning red, both in embarrassment and in anger at the thought that his blood family could be in danger.

Sang straightened her shoulders to face off Nathan's incredibly muscly set. "What makes you think he's a…perv…?" Her cheeks twinged pink as she tried to get the awkward word past her tongue.

Kota was hissing as he answered. "He's in my bedroom. _Naked_."

She pivoted to square off with Kota this time, trying hard not to stand on her tip toes to attempt to compensate for the height difference. "There are plenty of reasons someone can be naked. Luke doesn't like clothes, but he's not committed to a mental institution."

Luke snickered despite the seriousness of the situation.

"I was stuck in a closet in the nude for hours," Sang continued. "Does that make me sick?"

Kota's posture deflated. "That's different. You were forced to do that against your will."

She spun on the balls of her feet, her dirty blonde hair fanning out behind her as she faced the man in the chair with the bed sheet on his lap. "Why don't you have clothes on?"

Honey brown eyes blinked up at her. "I don't have clothes."

Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "So he's a delusional hobo?"

Sang couldn't put words to the feeling coursing through her. There wasn't an appropriate label to give the sensation. Something about looking into the man's eyes resonated within her, stirred up her very soul. Sang was never religious, but she guess this is what faith felt like, to be absolutely sure of the truth without having the logic to back it up. She had seen those eyes before, looking up at her friend from across the garage, begging for attention and recognition for his good behavior. Those eyes were full of devotion and unwavering loyalty. Those same eyes blinked up at her right then and there.

"I think he's Max," she declared.

"No!" Nathan shouted. "That can't be Max! Sang, you're smarter than this!"

She pursed her lips and planted her fists onto her hips. She still faced Max, and she hoped that her stance wouldn't be misunderstood for her to be angry at Max. She was getting rather frustrated at her friends behind her instead and was too riled up to focus the aggressive body language the proper direction. "Where do you live?" she asked the man with the honey brown eyes.

His answer was short. "Here."

"For how long?" she continued her interrogation.

"Puppy. Max…I was a puppy."

Sang was making progress. Her hands relaxed by her sides, and the other boys listened as she worked. "How long have you been a person?"

Max tilted his head to the side in confusion.

It was too cute, and Sang couldn't help but let a little bit of a smile slip onto her lips. "How long have you had only two legs and not four?"

He couldn't keep eye contact with her for too long at a time. He was recognizing her as the more dominant of the two of them. "Kota sleep," Max answered.

"After Kota went to bed?"

"Kota come home. I…Max…I have tail. Wake up. No more tail. Kota get me. Take me down."

His speech was slowly improving. He was stumbling over applying pronouns, like a child learning how to speak, but there were still parts that were hard to translate. Sang had to force herself to think differently. What would the golden retriever associate with 'get'?

Kota demonstrated some of Max's training to her before. The verbal commands were short and to the point. Like the time he instructed the dog to switch on a light, he simply said, "Light," in a commanding tone. But there were other times where he talked to Max like he was another person, such as the time he told Max to go sit on the couch when Kota was too busy concentrating on something to offer the dog pets. Considering the position the two were in when she, Nathan, and Luke came in, and then comparing it to one fateful night…

Sang looked over her shoulder to Kota. "What's the command you told Max when we first met? Where you got him to sit on me?"

Even behind the glasses, his green eyes were sparkling as he made the connection. "Just that. I told him to get you. Take you down."

She was half expecting to be glomped when those words came from Kota's mouth, but this time, no one knocked her over, sat on her legs, and started licking her arm. Instead, Max was gazing up at Kota with the epitome of sad puppy dog eyes.

"So," Sang pushed on and refocused Max's attention to herself, "You came here as a puppy, but today you are a man. How did that happen?"

Nathan provided his two cents on the matter. "He must have been casing the house for a while."

Kota shook his head. "No. I would have noticed. Max would have noticed and brought my attention to it. The only odd activity on our street are the tails Mr. Hendricks sends after us."

"How did you become a man?" Sang asked of Max.

In all innocence, he answered, "I dream. Magic."

Sang turned back to her three boys. "There you go. That explains it."

Nathan groaned. Kota shoved his glasses back up his nose with the push of a fingertip.

"Sang," Luke said. "You're smarter than that. There's no such thing as magic."

She narrowed her eyes at Luke. "Before I met you, I was sure there was no such things as secret society schools full of secrets, who trained their students to be ninjas and experts in espionage." She stepped back and started speaking to all three of them. "Then some of these students notice and pull me out of showers I'm tied up in for hours, or stay with me in closets when no one wants me, or smuggle me to the next town over when I'm being stalked by an obsessed vice principal. My life is already an impossibility. I'm living my own fairy tale, and I'm willing to keep my mind open for a little bit more."

The look of defeat on Kota's face should have tugged on her heart strings, but it annoyed her more than anything. "Sang…"

She huffed. "I get it. You need proof. You need data." A plan quickly unfurled in her mind, details clicking into place. "Is Max microchipped?"

Kota perked up. "Yes," he said with certainty before going to his desk and digging through the bottom drawer. After a moment of rummaging around, he pulled out an electronic device roughly the size of his hand. It was grey and had a singular button in the middle, just underneath a simple display screen.

It shouldn't have surprised her that a pet microchip scanner was readily handy at the Lee residence, but it did. Sang had already been trying to formulate plans on how to look up and take Max to an animal shelter or veterinary office to borrow one, even if they had to not-quite-ask for permission.

Her thoughts must have been broadcasting on her face again, for Kota answered her as the other two turned the computer chair around to expose Max's back. "Having one around is handy for when we come across lost pets. That way, we don't need to go out of our way to find a public facility. We've used this on more than one occasion." There was enough room in the explanation for the implication that it was used for Academy business. Did the Academy send them to rescue pets too?

Nathan and Luke were a little more tender when moving Max's head forward to expose the top of his back, but still not quite as gently as they would a friend. Kota pressed and held the button on the device before holding it over the patch of skin in between Max's shoulder blades. Only a moment was needed before the scanner beeped.

Kota read the numbers on the screen, his lips silently forming the digits. "That's Max's chip number," he said on a whisper. Of course he would have the registration number to his own pet memorized. "The evidence is there. I just still can't quite manage to wrap my mind around it."

Max tried to look over his bare shoulder. "I love you, Kota."

Nathan shook his head back and forth. "That's just weird now."

"What about the cameras?" Sang asked. She knew all of their houses were outfitted with Academy cameras like they did at the grey house she lived in with Marie and her stepmother. Surely the cameras in Kota's room could provide enough proof to convince him what she already believed.

Kota put the chip scanner back into his desk drawer and closed it. "They weren't on. The cameras don't get turned on unless someone turns them on. We don't record feed constantly. It'd take up server space, and that's a security risk. Believe it or not, Sang, we do value privacy too."

"Okay," Luke said to Max after he spun the chair back around and readjusted the sheet around the man's hips. "If you're really Max, tell us something about Kota that only he would know. Something that he does when he thinks no one is looking."

"Kota needs glasses," Max immediately answered.

With the mention, Kota pushed his glasses up his face again.

"Nope!" Luke grinned. "We all know that already. Try again."

"Kota counts," Max tried again.

Nathan and Luke shook their heads. "Keep trying."

"Kota snores."

Luke doubled over laughing. Sang tried to hide her giggles behind her hand, but she wasn't very successful. She already knew that Kota snored, albeit not nearly as loud as North, or even Nathan when he was especially exhausted.

Kota waved his hand around in a circle with a 'keep going' motion.

Max thought for a moment, his eyes animated. He brightened up and sat up straighter, obviously proud of himself when he spoke next. "When Kota feels his red rocket, he says over and over again S—"

Quicker than lightning, Max's mouth was clamped shut by Kota's palm, cutting the man off mid-word. "I'm convinced," Kota admitted, sure of himself.

Sang was confused. She didn't understand what Max was saying. "Um, what's a red—"

"Don't worry about it," Kota, Luke, and Nathan all said to her in unison, which only confused her more.


	4. Chapter 4

Even after the three of them agreed upon Max's identity as Kota's pet dog, Nathan still had absolutely no idea as to what to do about him. Yeah, the Academy taught them to always be prepared for anything and everything, but this predicament? There was no way in hell Nathan could have prepared anything for this.

Thankfully, Kota was a quick thinker and directed everyone into action before he got a check-in call from North. Sang went to the bedroom closet and picked out some clothes she thought could fit Max. Nathan and Luke found scissors and freed Max's hands. The pair had to hoist the new human up under his shoulders until he could manage to put his feet under him. Nathan didn't know how to sympathize with someone who was use to walking on four feet, and then suddenly forced to balance upon two.

"Will you be okay in there?" Nathan asked after they got Max situated in the bathroom with a clean set of clothes set on the sink counter.

"Yes," was the simple reply.

Nathan closed the door and let Sang know it was safe for her to come out of the closet again. Luke gathered up the bedsheet that had fallen to the floor and shoved it into the dirty laundry hamper, even if it was hardly used and could still be considered clean.

After Kota finished up his phone call with North, he informed them the next part of the game plan: they had to get Max out of the house before Erica came home from work. Kota's mom simply would not understand why the household dog was no longer present, nor why Kota was hosting a full grown man with no past in their home. Somehow, explaining things to grownups always seemed to be more difficult than getting one's peers to understand the situation and the motivation behind the decisions made concerning said situation.

"Once Max is dressed, we're going back to your house, Nathan," Kota said while dialing up Mr. B. "You three need to get dressed for the day too."

Based on the half of the conversation Nathan could hear, Mr. B did not believe Kota's explanation about Max at first. Mr. Blackbourne attributed it to be one of Luke's pranks until Kota expressed how he was being serious. The phone conversation was strangely quiet for several moments between the two.

Luke and Nathan were standing around in our own awkward silence until a crash came from the bathroom. Sang squeaked from where she was making Kota's bed.

Nathan rubbed his day's worth of whiskers with the palm of his hands as he rushed across the room to the bathroom. "We're idiots to assume he knows how to dress himself when he barely understands walking upright," he said mainly to himself before letting himself through the door to find a fully grown man sprawled on the patterned linoleum with nothing on but one arm through a pant leg.

Max blinked up to Nathan with huge, sparkling eyes. Sad puppy dog eyes. It made Nathan's heart melt.

"Max needs help," he whined in a sad voice.

"No kidding," Nathan answered as he closed the bathroom door again for privacy's sake and helped Max back up and settled him to sit on the closed toilet. A quick scan around the room showed nothing was broken, so he started gathering up the clothes.

"Why do people wear clothes?" Max asked innocently as he held up his hand in front of his face and wiggled his new opposable thumb back and forth.

"I don't know, man," Nathan answered. "We just do. Why do you lick your balls?"

Max blinked up at Nathan with an expression that clearly showed he did not understand.

Nathan cursed and chuckled at the same time. "I forgot you're neutered. From one guy to another, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

As if they were linked by some common frequency of masculinity that bound all men together, they both looked down at Max's crotch.

"Weird. You have balls now," Nathan said as he held out a pair of boxers. "Stick your legs through the top, then one leg out each hole at the bottom."

Max obediently took the article of clothing and managed to get the waistband open. "Do I need to lick my balls now?"

"No!" Nathan was quick to answer. "Human guys don't do that. We…uh…we scratch instead."

Max managed one leg through the boxers. "I can do that."

"Not while girls can see you do it," Nathan amended, then decided even more clarification was needed, "and only if they itch."

Max was having troubles with knees. The joints kept getting in the way when he tried to get his other leg into the underwear. He was use to his legs bending the other way.

Nathan had him stand and brace his hands against the wall while he shimmied the boxers up to be around Max's waist, then got the newly made man to step into the pants. "This must be what it's like to dress a toddler," Nathan mused aloud. "Just on a bigger scale."

Max's cheeks blushed pink. "Max sorry. I'm sorry, Nathan."

"Don't worry about it," Nathan said as he pat Max on the shoulder and got him to sit on the toilet again. Max obeyed every command to the best of his abilities as he was still figuring out the whole balance thing, from hold his hands over his head to put on a shirt, to stay still so Nathan could quickly run a comb through the orange-blonde hair no Max's head. They both silently agreed that they weren't going to bother with the socks or slippers for the time being.

Max only had to lean on Nathan with one arm slung over the teen's shoulders for them to get out of the bathroom. Nathan took lead down the stairs; Max kept upright by gripping the hand rail and keeping one hand on Nathan's shoulder.

Sang looked nervous. She could never hide her feelings. So when they all as a group emerged into the garage, Nathan shot Kota a look, asking silently why she was so apprehensive when she was the most confident with Max's predicament.

Kota answered by holding up nine fingers. Nathan blanched and froze in his tracks. Max kept walking.

That gesture coming from Kota meant that who he assigned as Number Nine in his mental roster was showing up to assess the situation for himself. Mr. Blackbourne was on his way. They were going to need more than Sang and a gadget that spat out numbers to convince their boss of this outlandish situation.

"Kota!" Max exclaimed as he stumbled by himself on his own two feet down the driveway. He looked like he was still drunk after a bachelor party. "Kota's car!"

Everyone jogged to catch up to him. "What's wrong with my car?" Kota asked with worry.

Max reached the older sedan and bent at the waist to sniff at the headlight. "This is Kota's car," he stated with certainty. "Kota's car is…different."

Everyone scrunched their eyebrows together, not understanding what Max was trying to point out. "Max, is my car okay?" Kota asked.

The man circled the car, sniffing the entire way, then fell over on the curb rather ungracefully to look underneath. He was quite a sight with bare feet and his butt sticking up in the air. "Kota's car is safe. Kota's car is different." With twilight fading to give way to the morning sunrise, Max got distracted from the car and sat back on his haunches to gaze up at the brightening sky.

"Oh! I get it!" Luke beamed. "He's seeing color for the first time."

Kota nodded. "That makes sense. Let's go before Mom gets here."

Max scrambled up and dashed for the garage, which was the wrong way. At least, he tried to; still not accustomed to human legs, he tripped over his own feet and fell on the concrete. The smack of flesh on the rough surface made everyone wince. Sang whimpered and pressed her lip against her teeth after Max yipped in pain, but Max just hopped right back up and continued on, not staying down for long.

The boys were starting after him, wanting to check for scrapes and correct his destination, until they noticed he was headed for the rack that held the small assortment of leashes on the garage wall. Max dutifully grabbed one and brought it back out, holding it in an outstretched hand toward Kota. Everyone else was dumbstruck.

"Uh…" Nathan broke the silence when he noticed blood starting to well up from the abrasion on the side of his jaw. "You don't need that now, Max. Just don't go running off, okay?"

Max smiled. "Max heel. Yes, Nathan. I heel." He then looked at Kota, eyes begging for praise and approval.

Kota grabbed the offered leash. Sang tugged at his t-shirt. "Tell him," she urged.

Kota looked down at her, lips pursing for a moment. "He's not a dog anymore. We shouldn't be treating him like one."

Sang narrowed her eyes before going over to Max and holding his arm. "He still thinks he's your dog, and he's a very good one too, aren't you?" she cooed up to him. "We need to go to Nathan's house, and we'll clean you up," she informed him as she flipped over his hand and showed everyone another scrape he got from his fall on the heel of his palm.

Together, they crossed the street and entered Nathan's house. Kota went for the first aid kit after getting Max to sit on the couch. Max was looking around, head swiveling in all directions as Nathan, Luke, and Sang went to the bedroom to grab clothes and change. Sang took her bundle to the bathroom while the other two guys quickly dressed in the room. By the time Luke and Nathan emerged again, Kota was dabbing disinfectant to Max's jaw.

Little whining noises came from Max's throat. The sting from the exposed nerves had finally set in, and Kota's good intentions to patch him up was only aggravating the pain.

"I know, Max," Kota tried to sooth him with calm words. "I'll be done soon, buddy. Just keep holding still for me."

"Do I need to call Doc?" Nathan offered.

Kota shook his head no. "They're minor. No need to wake him."

Nathan nodded to acknowledge. "I'll go start some coffee and some eggs," he said as he headed for the kitchen.

"Thanks," said Kota.

The coffeepot just got turned on and Nathan was just about to start cracking eggs into a bowl when someone knocked at the front door.

Nathan heard Kota from the living room. "Wait! I'm not done yet!"

"I got it!" Nathan cried out, knowing who had just arrived. Max was already waiting at the front door, eyes narrowed and glaring at the door. Nathan had to nudge him out of the way to open it. "Mr. Blackbourne. You know you don't need to knock and wait at my house." He told him as such at least a dozen times, but Mr. Blackbourne still knocked like a gentleman whenever there wasn't an emergency that required him to rush or sneak inside.

Mr. Blackbourne's grey eyes quickly glanced over Nathan before switching over to Max, inspecting him from head to toe as he stepped into the house. "You must be Max," he said smoothly.

"Must check," Max whispered before nearly lunging at Mr. Blackbourne. Mr. Blackbourne held his footing as Max inspected him right back. Max poked a finger at the maroon tie, eliciting a light grunt from the older teen. Mr. Blackbourne simply straightened it and readjusted the knot at the top as Max circled around and lifted the back of his suit jacket, bent over, and quickly sniffed at the seat of his pants.

Sang had come out of the bathroom at some point and giggled, then blushed when she realized just who she was laughing at.

"Friend," Max announced after dropping the hem of the jacket and standing up straight again.

Kota gulped. Luke and Nathan were speechless. Sang was beet red.

Mr. Blackbourne pushed his glasses further up his nose as Max went to go sit back down at the couch and offered his bleeding hand back to Kota.

"My apologies, Luke," Mr. Blackbourne said. "I wrongly accused you of a prank, though this would have been quite the joke if you had thought of it."

"I wish I did," Luke replied.


	5. Chapter 5

Mr. Blackbourne could read it off their faces. His boys always seemed to let their personal expressions free when they believed themselves to be in familiar company. Then there was Miss Sorenson, who did not comprehend the meaning of poker face.

Each one of them, except for the individual in question, did not believe he, Mr. Blackbourne himself, would come to accept so quickly the situation for what it was.

Mr. Blackbourne was already giving the boys the benefit of the doubt as he drove over to the Griffin Residence. He had been training his team to trust in each other and to trust in _him_ unconditionally and at all times. He made sure the trust worked both ways.

A lot had to go in to allowing Kota to believe his pet had inexplicably transformed to be human. Mr. Blackbourne trusted Kota's judgment. Yes, there was still a chance the ordeal was one of Luke's more elaborate pranks, but seeing the specimen with his own eyes sealed the deal. There was essentially no human behavioral characteristics whatsoever to his Max person. Posture, facial expressions, his method of identifying who Mr. Blackbourne was… Even if this man had human physiology, he had the mind of a well-trained dog.

Mr. Blackbourne wasn't going to share of these thoughts unless one of them was curious enough to outright ask. Instead, he made eye contact and nodded to each of his three boys, saving Sang for last. "Miss Sorenson."

She averted her eyes with her reply. "Mr. Blackbourne." She still lacked confidence in his presence, but he was slowing working on fixing that.

Mr. Blackbourne went further into the house and stood in the living room. He made a point to stand far enough away to not intimidate Max, but still allow for him to observe how he interacted with Kota. To be honest with himself, he had little blue as to how to best handle the psyche of a dog. He didn't know if proximity was interpreted to be a threat, or if Max was comfortable enough to not perceive him as a threat. His expertise was in human behavior psychology. Not…whatever this was.

"Does anyone know how this came to be?" Mr. Blackbourne asked.

Luke took a seat in the armchair as Sang went into the kitchen to assist Nathan with breakfast preparations.

"No," Kota answered.

Luke relayed what little they did manage to learn. "According to Max, _magic_ did this. He went to sleep as a dog, and when Kota woke up, Max is a dude."

Mr. Blackbourne paced back and forth, never letting his steel eyes break away from Max, who was getting a large adhesive bandage affixed to his hand. "And his injuries?"

"New feet," Kota replied, then started gathering all the bits of wrappers and other trash made from patching Max up.

Moments after Kota stood to dispose of the trash and put back the first aid kit, Max got up from the couch and went to the sliding glass door that led out to the swimming pool outside. He put his hand on the glass and whimpered.

"What's up, Max?" Luke asked as he watched curiously.

"Need to go outside," Max said.

Luke didn't notice the way Max's knees were pressed together. "Why? It's too cold to go swimming right now. The pool isn't ready."

Mr. Blackbourne cleared his throat. "I believe Max needs to utilize the restroom facilities, Mr. Taylor."

Luke's eyes grew wide with understanding. "Oh." He hopped up from his seat to take Max by the shoulders and guide him to the hall bathroom. Wisely, he entered with Max and closed the door, lest Sang walk by when Luke was essentially potty training the new human.

Sang emerged from the kitchen and held out a coffee mug to Mr. Blackbourne. She kept avoiding eye contact as usual, but as Mr. Blackbourne took the steaming coffee with one hand, he tipped her chin up with the other as he bend down slightly so they were eye to eye. Grey to green. "Thank you, Miss Sorenson."

"You're welcome, Mr. Blackbourne."

He turned slightly as he stood to his full height again, keeping one eye on her as he brought the mug to his lips and sipped. When the ceramic mug advertising a fitness nutritional supplement brand lowered, he wore his millimeter smile on the corner of his lips. The coffee was perfect. Just the way he liked it. Minimal sugar to chase away the brunt of the bitterness and enough cream to turn the black into brown. Mr. Blackbourne was impressed she remembered how he fixed his morning coffee after only a couple of instances where they shared a meal together. Her observation skills were remarkable.

As he took his second sip, Sang's phone rang, making her blush as she turned away to pull it out of her bra cup. Kota was also on his phone again, presumably with Victor concerning the package pickups.

Luke's head popped out of the bathroom door. "Clean up on aisle four!" he announced before disappearing inside again.

Nathan was still preparing a hot breakfast, so that left Mr. Blackbourne to grab the cleaning supplies. He set his coffee on a coaster on the coffee table, removed his grey suit jacket, and laid the garment on the back of one of the dining room chairs. He rolled his dress shirt sleeves up as he headed for the laundry room to grab cleaners, paper towels, and a small trash bag.

"Can North come over?" Sang asked while pressing the face of her pink-cased smartphone against her bosom.

"Yeah," Nathan answered. "He knows he's welcome here anytime."

Kota spoke up from his own phone call. "Have North meet Victor at the diner beforehand," he instructed. "They both can come here afterward, and we can tell them both in person what is going on."

Sang relayed the message.

Mr. Blackbourne knocked on the bathroom door, trading places with Luke and Max, who was disrobed down to boxers. The two quickly shuffled to Nathan's room. "I hope you have enough dirty clothes for a load, Nate! Because I'm starting some laundry in a minute!" Luke yelled before closing the bedroom door.

Mr. Blackbourne looked down at the mess in the bathroom, noting the pile of clothes on the floor kicked into a corner and their condition. He then decided it was best to simply not ask and just get to work.

Some time later, everyone ate a breakfast together. Kota, Sang, Max, and Mr. Blackbourne sat at the dining table. Nathan and Luke opted to eat nearby in the kitchen, staying close enough to be included in any conversation. Even if there wasn't to be talking, they wanted to stay within eye shot, because watching Max learn to not shove his face into the plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and learn how to use a fork was hilarious.

With the small amount of observation Mr. Blackbourne had at that point, he could already tell Max was learning and adapting at an exponential rate. Fine motor skills, such as to hold a fork and balance food upon the tines, should have taken a month of practice to master, but Max was successfully shoveling breakfast into his mouth. Manners and etiquette clearly were not priority; those lessons could be tackled at a later date.

Mr. Blackbourne vetoed Luke's attempt to serve Max coffee with the meal. With so many unknowns surrounding the man, adding caffeine to Max's metabolism was a factor that could easily be avoided. Max was happy with a glass of water. Teaching him to use the glass properly proved to be interesting too.

"He's only four years old, isn't he?" Nathan said. "Why isn't he a child?"

"Dog years," Kota answered. "Proportionally speaking from the lifespan of a typical golden retriever to the average human lifespan, Max is accurate." To Max, he added, "You're the equivalent of 28.9 years old."

Mr. Blackbourne added on. "If anyone asks you how old you are, Max, say you are 29."

"29," Max repeated. "I am 29 years old."

The front door opened without preamble, and in entered North, followed by Victor.

"Tell me there's coffee left," North grumbled as he headed straight for the kitchen, not bothering to wait for an answer.

Victor headed for the crowd at the table, pausing when he did not recognize the head of orange-blonde hair dressed in Nathan's clothes. His eyes were a comfortable smolder as he regarded the newcomer curiously before Sang interrupted his observations. "Hi, Victor," she said from her seat at the table.

The flames in his eyes ratcheted up. "Hi, Princess."

"Do you want some breakfast?" she offered.

Victor shook his head no. "I already had something earlier this morning."

North came into the dining area with a mug of coffee in his hands. A drop splashed over the lip as he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he saw who was present. "Who's this?" he asked slightly aggressively, but obvious he was trying to put forth some manners and not offend the stranger outright.

Max was obviously tense, wanting to get up and do his job and inspect the two newcomers, but Kota's hand on his shoulder kept him from leaping up and shoving his nose into North's jeans.

Kota spoke to him in a soothing tone. "Can you tell who they are?"

Max nodded.

"Are they friends?"

Max nodded. "Victor. North. Friends."

Victor tilted his head in a mix of confusion and curiosity.

North's brows furrowed. "This guy already knows us?"

Luke stepped forward and started gathering everyone's plates to be cleared off and put in the dishwasher. Mr. Blackbourne stood and buttoned the front of his suit jacket closed, waving his hand for everyone to gather in the living room.

They all took seats as Mr. Blackbourne took a stand in front of the television. Max sat on the floor next to Kota, close enough so they were touching. Kota was a little uncomfortable with the proximity, but Max just looked at him with nothing but adoration in his eyes.

"Mr. Morgan, Mr. Taylor," Mr. Blackbourne started. "May I introduce to you Max," he extended his hand to indicate the man trying to scoot himself into Kota's lap. "Kota's dog."

North raised an eyebrow. "This is one of Luke's jokes, right?"

Luke cried out from where he was cleaning up the breakfast mess in the kitchen. "Why does everyone always blame me?!"

Sang giggled.

"Quite the contrary," Mr. Blackbourne answered North. "By some happenstance we do not yet understand, Max has become human."

North shrugged. "Okay."

Everyone's heads whipped around to look in disbelief at the teen clad in black. North just gulped down more coffee.

"You believe this that easily?" Nathan sputtered.

North's dark gaze focused on him as he sat back and crossed his arms behind his head. "Kota believes it. Mr. B believes it. I trust them, so I believe it."

Mr. Blackbourne's lip curled upward in that millimeter smile again. At least one of his boys had learned his lesson concerning trust. He was proud.

Victor chuckled. "I guess I have no option but to believe it too. Is this a permanent condition?"

They all looked at Max, who was now laying belly up across Kota's legs. Kota had sweat beading on his brow from sheer awkwardness. "We have no idea," Kota answered.

"Then what do we do now?" Victor questioned.

"One step at a time. We need to find out more information," Mr. Blackbourne answered. "I want to have Dr. Green give Max a look over."

Sang squeaked in horror. North immediately scooped her up from her seat on the floor in front of him and settled her in his lap, holding her tight.

"You are not going to dissect him like he is some space alien!" Sang argued firmly.

Mr. Blackbourne's eyes widened behind his black frame glasses. "Of course not, Miss Sorenson. Max is considered family. No harm will come to him. Nothing invasive. We need to see if he has any clues for us to better understand his situation, or if there are any anomalies to take into consideration."

Kota had to lean back on his elbows because Max, despite the physical contact, was still trying to nudge in even closer to Kota's face little bits at a time, as if he was trying not to let the little advances be noticed by anyone. "Great!" Kota said with stress evident in his voice. "None of us have plans for the day, just sleep for Victor. We just need to wait for Dr. Green to wake, then we can meet up at the hospital."

Victor smiled and shook his head back and forth. "I'm not missing out on this."


	6. Chapter 6

North napped on the couch, sitting upright and his head back. His jaw hung open, and Luke busied himself by sticking his finger into his brother's gaping mouth, testing to see how far he could get without touching any of North's teeth or tongue.

Luke did well to contain his amusement as he inserted more and more of his hand until his fist was nearly engulfed. If Luke started laughing now, he was sure to set off North's gag reflex or possibly get half his hand chomped off.

Victor watched Luke's latest antic, thoroughly entertained as he sipped on one of the iced coffees Nathan had in stock in his fridge for Sang.

Both boys had an ear open to the conversation Mr. Blackbourne was having with Kota, Sang, Nathan, and Max. Max was mostly quiet, only speaking when someone asked him a direct question. He was not use to being included in active conference. The group discussed their observations, such as Max's astounding learning rate and adaptation of new fine motor skills.

Sang pointed out Max's use of pronouns that had developed throughout the morning, which led to how everyone noticed Max's sentences were gradually getting more complex. Soon, he would have the cognitive ability of a late 20s adult male, just as he appeared to be. Mr. Blackbourne pointed out that while his mind will have caught up to his body, Max's social skills will most likely still be severely lacking.

Sang managed to occupy Max with folding laundry after Max managed to successfully sneak a lick to Kota's cheek. Sang would show him the difference between how Nathan liked his shirts folded as opposed to Kota's. Max was enthralled with the bright colors of the fabrics before he pulled them up to his nose and sniffed. Based on the scent underneath the detergent, fabric softener, and anti-cling dryer sheet, the man could tell who wore the shirt last and identify the true owner of the garment.

Nathan joined the laundry party and confiscated all the underwear after Max correctly named who owned the first pair of boxers he came across and made comment on Nathan's diet the day he last wore them.

"Interesting," Kota said as Nathan rummaged through the laundry basket. "It appears he has retained some of his canine characteristics. Max? Come here for a bit."

Sang narrowed her eyes at her spectacled friend. "Don't turn him into a guinea pig."

Max cocked his head to the side again, making his orange-blonde hair fall over one of his honey brown eyes. "I am not a rodent. I am a dog." His eyebrows scrunched together in a very human gesture. "No. I am a person now. I am man."

Victor spoke up with some conjecture. "I think idioms are going to be a long term goal."

Luke snickered. His hand shook. North gagged and launched himself until he was doubled over in a coughing fit. Luke laughed harder as he thumped his brother on his back in a fake attempt to help.

"What the hell?!" North gasped in between bouts. His dark eyes looked to Kota. "Did you see what happened?"

Kota adjusted his glasses to where light glared off the lenses. A mischievous smirk teased the edges of his mouth. Victor recognized this look on his friend. Kota wasn't very creative when it came to the arts, but he was still creative in other ways. It was part of what made him a great leader. He knew how to think outside of the box when the situation needed a new angle, and he wasn't afraid to try new methods to get a point across to his team.

"I saw it," Kota replied.

Luke gulped.

"Max!" Kota barked in his commanding voice. Max immediately stood up at attention. Everyone was half expecting Max to salute. "Sniff out, locate, and retrieve any hidden stores of candy, chocolate, and all other sweets in the house.

"I am willing, and I will obey!" Max recited.

Mr. Blackbourne's lip curled up that one millimeter.

Kota nodded his approval at Max's response. "Go," he commanded.

Max immediately rushed about the main part of Nathan's house, led by his nose. Luke's face went pale, and Sang poked him repeatedly in the arm after he went catatonically still.

More out of habit than curiosity, Victor had his smartphone out and used the stopwatch feature to time the feat as he watched a pile grow on the coffee table. First, there was a ziplock bag with chocolate chip cookies from under the leather sofa. Next was a half empty bag of jolly ranchers from behind the Xbox. Every time he found something, he would bring it to the living room and deposit it onto the table. Chocolate chips, Hershey's kisses, gummy bears, two packages of those black cupcake things with the white swirl on top and cream filling in the middle, and a roll of cough drops later, the timer stopped at just under ten minutes. Max was _very_ thorough even with the search of the garage.

"That's more than I suspected," North muttered, picking up the cough drops and popping one into his mouth.

Kota addressed his pet…man…person…thing as he stood at attention right in front of Kota. "There's nothing else?"

Max responded with surety. "There is no more. I can run another sweep if you want me to."

"No. You did very well, Max. I'm proud of you."

Victor looked at Max's rear, not in a gay way, to see if it started wiggling back and forth to compensate for a lack of a tail wagging with the sheer joy pouring out of the man. His butt stayed still, but Max's entire body jumped up and down a little in excitement as he bounced on the balls of his bare feet.

Luke was pressing his forehead against a wall in defeat, not noticing Sang at his side desperately urging him to drink a glass of water she made for him to try and bring him out of his funk.

Mr. Blackbourne's phone buzzed with a text message. After he checked it, he announced Dr. Green was suitably awake and headed toward the hospital. It was time for everyone to pack up and head out.

"Do we want to bother Silas and Gabriel with this?" Kota asked for everyone's opinion as some put on their shoes.

"They do not need to join us at the hospital," Mr. Blackbourne answered. "Though, they will need to be informed sooner than later."

Nathan found a pair of his old flip flops to let Max wear, even though they were too short for Max's long and narrow feet. North's boots looked to be a closest fit, but North did not have any extra footwear stored in the back of the jeep he drove. Before the boys started making plans on when North could go by his trailer on the Taylor property and swing back to meet up with the group again, Kota stated he would take Max out shopping after the stop at the hospital. That would be a good a time as any to meet up with at least Gabriel and introduce him to Max.

As much as Luke wanted to go, he had to leave for the lunch rush at the diner. Nathan opted to stay behind, claiming he had household chores to catch up on.

"Do you want me to stay with you and help?" Sang offered as they watched North try and put the thong part of the flip flops between Max's toes.

Nathan shook his head. "Thank you, Peanut, but you're needed more with him." He nodded to Max, who was way past confused by this point. "You're his protector. You know how to keep the world of grown-ups from gobbling him up alive.

Luke took off from Nathan's back yard after giving Sang a hug and palming the gummy bears. Nathan got his hug to Sang in and snuck a nibble on her knuckles before the rest of them filed out the front door to get into the cars parked in the driveway.

North scooped Sang into his own hug before he left in his jeep to head to his home for more much needed sleep. Before he let her go, Kota noticed Max standing stiffly on the grass of the front yard, staring intently down curve of the road.

"What is it, Max?" Kota asked, cautiously approaching.

Max growled inhumanly, exposing teeth. If he still had fur, the hairs on his back would be standing on end.

Everyone stopped getting into cars and watched, trying to figure out what was setting Max into sentry mode.

"All I see is the mail truck," Victor said from the driver side door to his BMW.

Indeed, only the mail truck was moving, stopping at each house on the other side of the street for a hand to stick out of the window and slip bundles of envelopes into the mailboxes.

"Come on, Max. Time to go," Kota said while tugging on Max's arm.

Max didn't budge.

"It's just the mailman, Max. Please don't force me to tell you to heel."

Max growled again, yet remained immovable.

He stood, frozen on the spot and stared dagger at the white, boxy vehicle until it stopped right in front of Kota's house, and that hand stuck out again to slip in the Lee residence post. That was when Max bolted.

The two-sizes-too-small flip flops smacked against the asphalt of the street as Max ran full speed toward the mail truck, leaving Kota shouting dog commands taught to them in obedience school. North unwrapped his arms from around Sang and gave chase, shortly followed by Victor and Mr. Blackbourne. Even Nathan came tearing out of the house to follow the sprinting man-dog.

Kota made eye contact with Sang and told her to stay put.

Of course, she didn't listen.

Max didn't slow down, never stopping until his body smacked full speed into the front grill of the mail truck. The small truck was starting to accelerate to Kota's next door neighbor's house, but immediately lurched to a sudden stop when Max bounced off and landed on his back on the street. A manly curse flew from the open window of the vehicle.

Max jumped up to his feet, unphased by his collision, then leaped up until he was crouching on top of the inclined hood of the truck, grasping onto the base of one of the black windshield wipers to help keep him from falling backwards again. Max growled, snarled, and gnashed his teeth at the horror-stricken man on the other side of the flat pane of glass.

North reached Max and the truck first. He wrapped his arms around Max's waist and lifted the older-looking man off the hood, grunting when Max's hold on the wiper snagged his move. "Release!" North yelled.

Max's hand let go right as North tugged, sending them both reeling back to sprawl on the street.

Mr. Blackbourne and Nathan were next to arrive and took the brunt of the mailman's yelling and cursing as the federal worker stepped out of the vehicle.

"What the flying hell is the matter with him?!" he demanded to know as his arms waved above his head.

Kota and Victor showed up next. Kota started apologizing straight away and asking if the mailman was alright.

North was having issues holding Max down, so Nathan, still barefoot, bent down and expertly manipulated Max's joints to work against him and force him to submit. Even held immobile, Max still glared daggers at the mailman and growled from his throat.

Mr. Blackbourne approached the man in the blue collared and pinstriped uniform shirt and guided him to face away from the scuffle of bodies on the asphalt. "I apologize for our friend's behavior. He has been off of his medication for a few days now, so his actions are rather erratic and unpredictable."

"No damage to the truck," Kota reported from over their shoulders.

The mail carrier's eyebrows knit together. "What the fuck was he taking?"

"HIPPA, sir. I'm afraid that is none of your business," Mr. Blackbourne replied.

"Whatever," the mailman muttered before getting back into his truck and starting the engine again. "Just get out of the way, will you?"

It took both Nathan and North to drag Max back to Nathan's driveway. They had to sit on him to keep from chasing the mail truck down the other bend of the street, for Max kept glaring at its red tail lights until it was well out of sight.

Victor shook his head as he sipped from a new bottle of coffee. "I guess Max is retaining more characteristics than we thought."


	7. Chapter 7

Upon entering the foyer of the hospital, Max paused at the threshold where the low pile carpet of the vestibule ended and the decorative tile began. Sang bumped into Max's back, unable to cease her momentum. Max didn't budge; he was that solid in his stance.

Except for the whole-body shaking. He vibrated from the tips of his orange-blonde hair to his toes hanging over the edge of the borrowed flip flops..

After a few wrong questions and a liberal attempt to interpret Max's choice of words, the rest of the team eventually figured out why he was so apprehensive to enter the hospital.

"The vet office has the same floor tiles," Kota explained, "and the last time Max had to go there was after the junkyard incident." The hint of extra inflection in the words was the only clue that 'incident' was Academy related.

Whatever that incident entailed, Max must have gotten the short end of the stick. Kota had to lead Max by his hands across the lobby and past the Welcome Desk as Sang and Victor alternated tapping the underside of his chin to remind him to look up at the ceiling instead of the floor.

Poor Max fared worse in the elevator. He simply did not understand the sensations of the car moving and changing elevation to descent to the basement level. On top of that, he could not seem to be able to wrap his mind around how the outsides of the little room changed in the few seconds the stainless steel doors were closed.

Dr. Green was waiting in the hall, just in front of the sign that said the floor was for employees only. His first glimpse of Max was the frightened man on his butt, hyperventilating and scrambling back into a corner of the elevator.

Kota had to say, "Heel!" in his team leader voice to get him out as Victor held the doors from closing.

Dr. Green ignored the oddities and held out a hand toward the strange man. The doctor was not give a single clue as to why his friends were bringing a stranger to their office, and he did his best not to make any judgements until he was briefed.

Yet, his green eyes with the hint of a hazel circle in the middle still observed quietly, noting things like how this newcomer stared awkwardly at the offered hand until Kota told him to 'shake.' Then the handshake was one-sided, as Dr. Green was the only one to facilitate the up and down movement.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Dr. Sean Green," he introduced himself with a smile that did not betray that his mind was already whirling with thoughts, analyses, and possible explanations to the situation.

Mr. Blackbourne nodded his head toward the office his team claimed as their own. "Let's finish acquainting ourselves in a moment."

Dr. Green understood the unspoken message behind his best friend's words: _we need privacy._

Whatever was on their plate was very interesting if the boss wanted to hide this person from the eyes the Academy had everywhere. _How exciting_!

When everyone piled into the office with the window painted on the back wall, Dr. Green stood by the table covered with stacks of paper files and watched the flip-flopped stranger move to all four corner of the room. Without being asked, the man inspected the space in a way that resembled their own method of a quick security sweep.

One he was done, he stood in front of Kota and reported an, "All clear."

 _Interesting,_ Dr. Green thought to himself. _He already recognizes Kota as leader. Maybe the boys were thinking of adopting this guy._

"So!" Dr. Green clapped his hands together to draw everyone's attention to his beaming smile. "Who do I have the honor of meeting today?"

"Well…ah…" Kota flustered.

Dr. Green quirked up an eyebrow. It wasn't often the Team Lead of their illustrious group was at a loss for words. Instead of an answer, Kota only managed a string of numbers under his breath.

Mr. Blackbourne stepped up. "You've met him before, Dr. Green. You just don't recognize him now. This is Max."

Dr. Green crossed one arm around his chest to prop up his elbow, allowing him to scratch his chin thoughtfully. His fingernails made scratching noises against the half day's worth of stubble already growing in. "I only know one Max," he stated while nodding to Kota, "and that's your dog."

Mr. Blackbourne cleared his throat and did not correct the good doctor.

Kota counted six seconds of silence that settled among them all.

"No," Dr. Green said incredulously when it was obvious no one was going to clarify otherwise. "He's not _your_ Max, is he?"

Everyone's head, even Max's, bobbed in confirmation.

Dr. Green checked over his shoulder, then opened the office door to check the length of the hallway. His eyes were narrowed when he closed it again and faced everyone. "Where's Luke? This has to be his idea."

"Why does everyone blame Luke?" Sang asked innocently from where she sat next to Victor on the loveseat under the painted window.

Max lowered himself to sit on the floor at her feet, pressing up against her legs, instead of taking one of the other seats available around the room.

"This is right up his alley, Princess," Victor answered her.

"Pookie?" Dr. Green called to Sang with wide eyes. He knew that she was incapable of lying as long as she gave a straight answer. "You believe this nonsense?"

That cute little blush of hers invaded her cheeks before she spoke. "Yes."

Kota followed it up. "She was the first one to figure it out."

Dr. Green rubbed the back of his neck, trying to put the puzzle pieces together; and seeing how the dog-like behavior applied. He was no longer surprised when Max started pointing to each seat and named the person who regularly sat in the spot.

"Sang is sitting in Gabriel's seat," he announced to the room.

Sang's blush intensified as she shifted to get up, but Victor stopped her with his hand on her knee. "Don't move, Princess. Gabriel won't mind."

"So what do you want me to do?" Dr. Green asked the crowd.

Mr. Blackbourne answered him. "We are hoping can you provide some answers concerning how this came about, any physical anomalies that may be present, and if his new condition is permanent."

Dr. Green took up the white doctor's jacket from the table and shrugged it onto his shoulders. "Anomalies?"

Mr. Blackbourne nodded as he touched the bridge of his black framed glasses. "Max retains at least his exceptional olfactory sense. We are unsure if there are other qualities he possesses that might clash with his newly acquired human traits."

"Don't dissect him," Sang commanded with a scowl.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Pumpkin. The best I can do right now is shine a light into his throat and take his blood pressure. "Dr. Green went to a filing cabinet, reached into one of the drawers, and pulled out the medical bag he usually carried on him when fulfilling his medical role. "Questions are going to be raised among the staff if I order an MRI for no viable medical reason, especially for a John Doe that is conscious and lucid." He started pulling out a blood pressure cuff from the bag.

"Well…" Victor interjected, "…he did hit a mail jeep just before we came here."

Dr. Green spun on his heels in surprise, the tails of his white lab coat billowing out from around his legs with the sudden movement. His need to tend to the injured was suddenly brought front and center. "You were run over?!"

Max growled at the mention of his mortal enemy. "Bad man," he stated.

Kota told him to hush.

Sang reached forward to pet his mop of orange-blonde hair and comfort him. "Not really ran-over," she clarified. "He charged the truck and ran into it." Just remembering the sound of the smack of Max's body against the grill of the federal vehicle made her wince.

"That changes things," Dr. Green said with a smile on his lips. "One set of x-rays coming right up!" He pulled out his phone in the purple case and tapped on the screen. "To check for cracked ribs or other internal injuries, of course," he added with a wink.

An hour later, Mr. Blackbourne, Kota, Victor, Sang, Dr. Green, and Max crowded around a computer screen in one of the examination rooms. On the screen was an x-ray image.

"I can't tell which way is up," Victor commented.

Mr. Blackbourne removed his glasses and wiped the lenses clean with a square cloth before focusing on the x-rays again. He was no medical professional, but he knew what was shown was not normal.

"From what I can make of this," Dr. Green began, "you don't have any fractures, Max."

Kota blinked at him repeatedly. "You can tell from this mess?"

"That is the _only_ thing I can tell from this x-ray. The rest? I can't even begin to decipher. It looks like a double exposure. I see a canine chest cavity superimposed on top of a human male's. Except this can't be a double exposure, because the machine is digital and doesn't use film!" He turned to talk to Max directly. "You didn't happen to have a dog strapped to you when the radiologist stepped out, did you?"

Max shook his head back and forth.

Dr. Green clicked over to the next image. This one was of the profile of Max's head. Again, the picture was confusing with the smaller and sleeker canine skull overtop the larger and rounder human skull.

"No wonder the radiologist looked at me weird," Dr. Green muttered mainly to himself. "She said she needed to put in a work order as we left. Now I know why. Too bad the tech won't find anything."

"So, what does this mean?" Sang asked.

"It means," Dr. Green replied, "I have absolutely no idea. This is beyond me and medical science. The best we have to go in is your hypothesis of magic."

An uneasy silence settled over everyone as they all contemplated the unknown answers and the plethora of additional questions that arose.

Mr. Blackbourne broke the quiet with a set of orders. "Victor, you and Dr. Green will stay here and remove all evidence of these x-rays from the system. Mr. Lee and Miss Sorenson, move forward with the plan to properly attire Max." He pulled his phone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and checked the screen. "I have other business to attend to. Report in regularly."

Everyone sprang into action. Mr. Blackbourne left. Victor said he had to use one of the laptops back in the office and left after squeezing Sang into a hug.

Dr. Green snuck in his own hug to her, whispering and promising her more time for a date looking at babies later.

Max then bounded up to Sang and gave her a bear hug, his tall frame and long arms engulfing her petite body. "I love you, Sang!" He rubbed his cheek all over the top of her head.

Her arms flailed to the sides, not expecting the sudden show of affection from him too.

"What are you doing?" Kota asked as he pulled Max away and allowed Sang to start breathing again.

Max's head cocked to the side. "This is Hug Sang Time. Everyone is hugging Sang."

"You don't need to hug her goodbye right now. She is coming with us," Kota corrected with a slight scowl.

"Jealous much?" Dr. Green quipped as he tidied up the exam room.

Kota's cheeks tinged pink. Sang was red as a beet.


	8. Chapter 8

Gabriel's eyebrow twitched. He was utilizing every ounce of self-control he possessed throughout his entire life of sixteen years along with the bit reserved for the next five. The elderly Walmart greeter's hair was blue. Fucking _blue_ , and Gabriel wanted nothing more than to drag the woman's lumpy ass into the hair salon just around the corner and fix her fluffy, attempted-grey curls on top of her head. He had to bite his tongue to keep his mouth from flying off the handle and cussing at the ungodly shade. Where the hell did this lady get blue rinse from anyways?

Gabriel stood and faced the claw toy machine to help keep himself behaved. He wasn't actually going to insert quarters and play; Nathan and Kota were the experts of this game. Gabriel convinced himself he just wanted to see which of the plush and brightly colored prizes Sang would like the best.

His electric blue eyes flicked up to a corner of the Plexiglas. _God dammit._ That lady's reflection was there. Kota had better show up soon, for fuck's sake. He knew Gabriel hated Walmarts, and Kota had the balls to make him wait.

Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair, straightened his shirt, and twisted the earrings in his lobes; _anything_ to distract him from his twitching eye that kept glaring at those offensive blue curls.

"There he is!" a cute, feminine, and familiar voice called from just outside the automatic doors. "Meanie!"

Thank baby Jesus! Kota was here, and he had brought Sang.

…and a stranger?

"Oy! Who the flying fuck is that?" he asked upon seeing a tall and older man being dragged into the store with Kota and Sang under each of his arms.

"Go, go, go!" Kota demanded in a rush. "Restroom! Now!"

Gabriel snapped into action and replaced Sang supporting the new blonde guy. Sang wouldn't be able to follow them into the men's room.

The man's feet stumbled behind them as Gabriel and Kota marched in unison past the blue-haired greeter and toward the public restrooms. A glance at his face, and it was apparent why they were in a rush: the man's complexion was green. He was about to puke, and the sudden contraction of the guy's core muscles helped confirm it.

"Aw, shit," Gabriel cursed.

"Triple time!" Kota ordered.

They made it into the men's room and over a toilet just in the nick of time. Gabriel had to step out of the stall and hover by the handwashing sinks to keep the sounds of the man's retching from setting off his own gag reflex. The two store employees at the urinals were quick to finish up their business and shuffle out.

"God damned shit," Gabriel muttered under his breath. "Do I need to call the Doc?" he asked in a louder voice.

"No," Kota's voiced echoed off the walls. "It's just car sickness. He'll be fine."

Gabriel slipped his phone back into his jeans pocket. "Is there anything I can get?"

"I wish there was," Kota answered. "You know how it is. We just have to wait until it's done and over with."

"Buzz me if you need a hand. I'm going to go check on Trouble."

"Good idea. Thank you for your help, Gabe."

Sang paced in front of the water fountains with her fingers pushing her lips against her teeth. The poor bird was wrought with worry.

"Trouble," Gabriel called out to her as he went up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I don't know who that motherfucker is, but I can tell you're concerned for him. Kota says he's fine. It's just motion sickness."

"Meanie," she cooed while returning the hug. Her beautiful little body was shaking like an anxious Chihuahua. "I'm happy to see you."

A grunt escaped him as he squeezed her tight. He wanted them to be anywhere but here, the Kingdom of Cheap Plastic Shit that's Made in China. Even the clothes were made of plastic. He needed to take her to a proper store, a department store where money bought quality, or even better, a boutique.

He held her at arm's length and looked into her green eyes. "So what the hell is going on? Who's the guy puking his brains out, and why do you give a fuck about him? You don't like strangers."

She averted her gaze, avoiding eye contact and doing that insecure shit again. "I'm not sure you'll believe me," she answered vaguely.

"Why won't I believe you?" Gabriel followed up, confused with her reply.

"Because I'm surprised I believe it myself."

Gabriel put a hand on his hip and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. How about we start with who that guy is? Do you even know his name?"

Sang nodded. "Max."

"Good. Now for issue number two: give me that damned clip in your hair."

Sang's eyes widened, but her lip didn't jut out in a pout. "Do I have to?"

He stuck out his hand and curled his fingers in a _gimme_ motion. "Yes. It's my job. Your hair stays down."

She reluctantly parted with her clip, and Gabriel shoved it into a pocket. He then twirled a finger in the air to instruct her to about face so he could finger comb her tresses into something decent that complimented her face shape.

"So, who's Max?" he continued with the questions.

Sang glanced around at the people milling about on this side of the cash registers. She didn't want anyone to overhear.

"Sang, fuck everyone here." Gabriel then smacked his forehead with his palm. "No. Don't do that. _Forget_ them. No one here knows us, and they don't matter. If you want more privacy, we can sneak in there with Kota and that Max person. We just risk being kicked out if we're caught by management."

She shook her head no, making her chameleon blonde hair flounce about her shoulders. "You're right. Here is fine." Her teeth nibbled on the inside of her bottom lip before she answered, "Max is Kota's dog. He's human now."

Gabriel froze like someone pressed pause on the Gabe-remote. He took a few second to process and make sense of the words.

Sang halfway expected a reaction like this since Max's situation was rather unorthodox, but seeing her Meanie catatonically still worried her nonetheless. She poked his belly with a fingertip to try and get a response.

It kind of worked. Gabriel suddenly whirled into motion and pulled out his iPhone, fingers flying over the screen.

"What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"Texting Luke to tell him I didn't fall for his lame joke."

"It's not a joke," Kota announced as he emerged from the bathroom. Max sauntered just behind him, tight on Kota's heels.

Max was still slightly green but still managed a sheepish wave to Gabriel. "Gabe is a friend. Hi, Gabe."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the tall man for a moment, then stormed off away from the group. He pulled on his hair until it stuck out in several directions at once. After several paces, he turned on his heel and marched right back. "This is the most outrageous bullshit I've ever heard, and I'm not saying I'm falling for it, but I'll play along. You called me here for help. I'll do that. Now tell me what for so I can focus on it."

Kota waited patiently for Gabriel to finish his tirade. He knew he could count on his childhood friend to pull through when he was needed. "Max needs some clothes for at least the next few days. We don't really know…" he faltered slightly as he picked his words, "uh, how long he'll be in town."

Gabriel's expert eye inspected every inch of Max, from head down to his toes hanging over the edges of borrowed flip flops. He could work with this, though narrowing down to a specific style would take time. Gabe figured if Max was making his visit long term, there will be opportunities to observe his personality and figure it out. Until then, jeans and t-shirts would hold him over.

"Are we talking all the way down to underwear?" Gabriel asked.

Kota raised an eyebrow. "Do you want him wearing _your_ boxers?"

"Holy hell. Okay. Fine. You have a point."

"I'll grab a shopping cart," Sang volunteered.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and waved for Max to follow him. Max smiled and obeyed. "So, do you think you're a briefs, boxers, or boxer briefs kind of guy?"

"Which ones will let me scratch my balls?" Max asked innocently.

Sometime later, Max was capable enough to dress by himself in the fitting room, and the attendant no longer shot wary glares from her station to sort out unwanted garments. Gabriel stood outside of the cubicle to judge each of the chosen ensembles of clothing upon the man. Kota wandered off to sort the belts by length and color as Sang idly browsed the scarf and handbag station.

"Does Max get car sick often?" Sang asked Kota after she became too bored.

Kota nodded as he moved onto fixing the leather wallet display. "He does if he rides in a car for too long."

"He enjoyed sticking his head out the window, though," she giggled upon recalling how Max's orange-blonde hair flew in the breeze. At the time, she was half tempted to unbuckle her seatbelt and join him to try and experience the thrill for herself. However, she knew Kota wouldn't allow that. He had a hard enough time trying to convince Max to buckle his own.

Sang circled the metal shelf display and grabbed a couple misplaced wallets she had noticed before. Handing them to Kota to integrate into his organization, she asked, "What are we going to do after we're done here?"

Kota accepted Sang's help with thanks. "I'm not sure. The only thing we _need_ to do is to keep Max away from home. I also want to bring Silas into the know sooner rather than later. Maybe we'll go to the park or the movies."

"I like the park idea," Sang said. She thought Max would appreciate that more too instead of being forced to sit still for a couple hours and try to process the abstract ideas of plot and character development on a big screen.

With a smile and a warm kiss to her forehead, Kota agreed. "The park it is. We'll grab a soccer ball and maybe a Frisbee while we're here."

After Gabriel finished up with clothing, the group moved on to the shoe department and quickly settled upon a pair that fit Max's long and narrow feet. Sang snapped a picture of Gabriel kneeling in front of the man-dog and tying the shoelaces. Kota promised to teach Max how to tie his own later as he reached and grabbed for a pair of slip on shoes as a contingency plan. Gabriel made him put those back and pick out a different style.

To get to the sporting goods department, the band of teens and Max had to first go past the pet supplies. Before anyone could tell him to heel, Max disappeared down an aisle. When the rest caught up with him, they found the man's nose sniffing various 20-pound bags of dog food and pawing at them with his fingers. "Kota," he whined. "I'm hungry."

"Well fuck me sideways with a football bat," Gabriel cursed quietly with a hand on his hip and the other running through his hair to blend the blonde strands with the russet. "Okay. I believe you. Max is a motherfucking dog."

Max bent over and nudged a particular bag with his nose. "I eat this one," he said before going further down the aisle to rub his cheek and neck against a different brand of dogfood, "but I like this one better. Kota? Can we get this one?"

Kota's entire face was beet red, but he acted perfectly normal through his embarrassment. "That kind isn't as nutritionally sound as the kind we get you." He pushed his glasses further up his nose. "There's a McDonald's on the other side of the store. We'll grab lunch there."

Max stood up straight and nodded with a bright and happy smile. As he did, the other side of the shopping aisle caught the corner of his eye. He turned and faced off with an entire wall full of dog toys. His honey brown eyes grew wide as saucers as his jaw dropped.

"Uh oh," Sang whispered as Max started shaking and bouncing in excitement.

"Kota! Kota! Kota!" he exclaimed with unadulterated glee. "Ball! Toy! Mine!" He picked up a braided loop of rope and was about to shove the ends into his mouth.

Kota barked out, "Release!" before the merchandise made contact with Max's teeth. Immediately, Max dropped the rope and started grabbing other toys. "Ball! Toy! Ball!" Gabriel and Sang tried their best to pick up the discarded toys in Max's wake as Kota desperately tried to assert his authority and get Max to behave.

Max took in a long and dramatic gasp when he got to a basket full of animal plushies. "Oh my god, Kota! This one squeaks!" he exclaimed as he stuck his hand in, and each fuzzy toy sang in a chorus of high pitched groans.

Kota had to drag Max by the ear out of the pet department.

At Bob's Diner, Luke finally found a free moment to lean up against the outside of the walk-in freezer and check his phone. He wanted to shoot off a random text to Sang just to let her know he was thinking of her. To his surprise, he found a text message already waiting for him from an hour before. The message was of the regular sort, so he didn't feel bad being so late in reading the words. If it was more important, the electrical shock would have been certain to bring his attention to it immediately.

Luke chuckled as he read the text from Gabriel. "I don't know whether to feel offended or proud of myself with everyone blaming me," he said to himself.


	9. Chapter 9

Silas loved his father and the fact that his father loved his work. However, Silas didn't love plumbing as much as Charlie loved plumbing. So when the text from Kota came, stating the situation was non-emergency, Silas only had to stretch the truth a little to be excused from the lesson on the different type of pipe fittings needed to install a tankless water heater. He would much rather be spending time with his Academy family, even if it wasn't for Academy business as he may have led Charlie to believe.

There wasn't much detail in the text from Kota. There never was. Talking face-to-face was always the preferred method of communication. Silas was patient and learned to never walk in with any preconceived notions. Things tended to get weird with his brothers, even if the Academy itself wasn't involved.

He just never expected things to get _this_ weird.

Silas looked down at a man who was clearly older than him, who was trying to stand on his tip toes to reach up and sniff his cheek.

"I thought you were taller," the blonde man named Max said.

Silas leaned over to look at his brothers and Sang sitting at a picnic table from over Max's shoulder. Kota, Gabriel, and his _Aggele Mou_ were trying to stifle giggles behind their hands.

"Tell it to me again," Silas said as he put his large hand over Max's face and held his head back at arm's length. "I think I lost some meaning in translation."

Kota shook his head back and forth with pity and some sympathy mixed in. "It's crazy. I know, but it's true. You understand it correctly."

With his other hand, Silas pointed at the mop of orange hair poking out from between his fingers. "You're saying _this_ ," then pointed at Kota, "is _your_ dog."

Kota, Gabriel, and Sang's heads all bobbed up and down in unison.

He repeated the statement in Greek for his own benefit. The three of them nodded again, despite not knowing his mother tongue.

Silas muttered a few curses in Greek before releasing Max, lest the flailing arms manage to reach and smack his face.

As soon as Max was free, he sneezed. It was a whole-body affair and nearly toppled him over onto the green grass of the public park. That in itself wasn't weird; how he tried to rub his nose with his knee afterward was the weird part.

Nothing in particular was the singular piece of evidence to fully convince the Greek. Everything added up together did. First, Gabriel and Silas chased after Max as he bounded across the tennis courts and right into the middle of a match between two middle aged women. Impressively, Max caught the felted green ball in midair…with his teeth. Kota had to apologize profusely and use the excuse of Max being off his medication before giving the women the tube of the tennis balls they had just purchased at the store.

Then there was the dog chasing. Dog walkers and joggers bonding with their canine companions found themselves being pursued by the full grown man shouting, "Hey!" repeatedly and at the top of his lungs. The moment Max caught up to the confused people and now-excited dogs, he would drop to his hands and knees and shove his nose under the doggie's tail. The pets returned the favor and sniffed at the butt of his jeans. The first time, Gabriel snapped a picture with his phone of the Piscean arrangement of dog vs man. The third time, however, the teens were tired of the antic.

Silas focused Max's attention with trying to teach him how to pitch baseball style with the stolen tennis ball for a game of catch. The best laid plans go to waste, for Max was more interested in chasing after the ball Silas threw among the trees of the park. Every time, he ran back panting with the ball somehow shoved into his mouth.

"Shit," Gabriel said while observing. "I can't fit a tennis ball in my mouth." He opened his lips and exposed his teeth as much as he could and tried to shove his fist in. Sang watched curiously. Gabriel gagged, then took out his hand. "Fuck. How does Max do that? Does his jaw unhinge?"

Kota shrugged.

After a while, Max tired himself out. He passed out with his head on top of a picnic table for a nap. The poor man had had a rather exciting day. The group of teens took the opportunity to fully bring Silas up to date with all of the events involving Max since early that morning, from when Kota discovered Max in his room, to recounting the search for sweets at Nathan's house, the mailman incident, the obscure x-rays, and the shopping adventure.

"Kota knows Max more than anyone," Silas said after absorbing the recap, "but he usually doesn't growl at the mailman or delivery person. Max is smart. He'll bark to let Kota know someone is there, but not get mean."

Kota nodded in agreement, "Not unless I command it."

They all glanced at the man in question, currently snoring lightly and whimpering every few moments as he dreamed.

"Then why the fuck did he attack?" Gabriel asked.

Kota pushed his glasses further up his nose as his eyes danced back and forth with thoughts going through his mind. "Now that you mention it, he isn't the usual mailman." He looked to Sang. "You've seen our usual mailman, right?"

She nodded and pushed her lip against her teeth. Sang agreed the federal worker driving along Sunnyvale Court was not the same person she was accustomed to seeing deliver the mail.

"I've never really talked to him," Kota admitted, "but I wonder what happened to our normal mailman."

Silas knocked a knuckle on to the table. "Mail people and UPS drivers switch routes all the time. Your normal guy could be at home sick."

"Or on vacation," Kota added, agreeing. "We won't get anywhere speculating, though." He looked over at his pet again, whose legs were twitching like Max was dreaming of chasing a squirrel. "We can ask him when he wakes up why he behaved differently."

"So, what's the gameplan?" Silas asked.

Kota sighed. "For now, just play it by ear. He can't stay at my house while he's like this. For now, he can stay with Nathan and Sang. I want to talk to Mr. Blackbourne about more permanent arrangements."

Sang couldn't help it. She reached out and pet the top of Max's head as he slept, and the dream jitters instantly calmed. "Do you think this is permanent?" she asked to her friends.

"I have no clue," Kota answered.

Silas threw his thoughts across the table to Kota and Gabriel. Things would get very interesting for their team if Max was to remain a human. That meant two people of ghost status were under their care; two aces in the hole. The Academy was going to love them. The Academy would offer their team the world to utilize both Sang and Max for the greater agenda. However, Max already had unshakeable loyalty to Kota. The Academy couldn't steal Max, no matter how many treats they dangled in front of his nose.

They couldn't discuss this in front of Sang, but with a couple nods, a tight smile, and a few sets of slightly narrowed eyes, Silas knew the three of them were on the same page.

Max's nap was short, taking only half an hour before he jolted awake. Not knowing where he was, he fell backwards off the picnic bench and onto his back on the grass. The sudden flurry of flailing movement took all four teens by surprise.

Max recovered quickly by standing up and shaking his body. A wave of shivers started from his head and traveled down his body until the energy funneled out of his read in a gyrating twerk.

Gabriel doubled over laughing at the sight. Silas failed at hiding his chuckles behind a fist. Sang giggled freely, and Kota lowered his head to wave it back and forth slowly.

After a round of Frisbee, then having to explain to a bike-mounted policeman why Max was shouting, "Hey!" incessantly up a tree toward an innocent squirrel, the teens, as a group, decided it was time to leave the park and settle for dinner. Max asked to mark his territory at the base of the tree with the squirrel as they left. Kota instantly declined the request.

For dinner, they first tried to stop for a sit down at a BBQ restaurant. They had to leave when Max's sensitive nose picked up the strong spices and pepper in the air, making him suffer strings of sneezes with barely a chance to catch his breath in between, before anyone could order their drinks. Denny's was more successful. Max got a steak, much to his delight. He snubbed his nose at the vegetable sides, but reluctantly ate half of the portions at Kota's insistence. Everyone knew if North had been present, he would have made the man eat it all.

After the meal, Silas and Gabriel bade their farewells and went off to either home or Academy work already lined up for them. Kota drove Max and Sang to Nathan's house and helped bring in all the bags from shopping earlier in the day.

Max was crestfallen as Kota headed back to his car after instructing him to stay at Nathan's. "But, Kota…" he whined, "I want Mom. I want Jessica. I miss them. I love them."

Regret was in Kota's eyes as he looked to Sang and Max on the front porch of Nathan's brick house. "I know, Max. I'm sorry, but they can't see you right now. Not until we figure something out, okay, buddy?"

Max whimpered and looked at his new tennis shoes, submitting to the teen's decision. Sang watched from the doorway with hands full of plastic Walmart bags, heart breaking as she witnessed the exchange.

Kota rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a breath before coming back up the stairs onto the porch to give Max a squeezing hug. Max wrapped his arms around Kota in kind, along with rubbing his neck all over his master's shoulder affectionately.

"I'm not far, Max," Kota said, "and I'll be back first thing in the morning. We'll find a way for you to see Mom and Jessica soon, okay?"

Max nodded against the side of Kota's head, brown hair mingling with the reddish blonde.

"You'll be a good boy, right?"

He nodded again.

"I know you will. Listen to Sang and Nathan. Have them call me if anything goes wrong."

"I love you, Kota."

It was quiet, but Sang barely made out Kota whispering, "I love you too, Max."


	10. Chapter 10

_Sang was caught in a blizzard. Everything was blindingly white. With the swirling snowflakes and dense fog, she couldn't even see her own hands, swollen stiff, waving in front of her face. Harsh and biking wind whipped her hair around to smack against her cheeks and stick to the snot running out of her nostrils. The dripping fluid from her nose was already half frozen._

 _She yelled out, calling, crying for help. She was going to freeze to death. The wind and snow swallowed her voice._

"Sang," Nathan's voice woke her from her nightmare. Even as her eyes cracked open, she was still shivering.

"Nathan?" she croaked, voice scratchy from sleep.

"Jesus, Peanut. You're as cold as ice." His hands rubbed vigorously over the bare skin of her arms, eliciting goosebumps.

As awareness slowly crept into her, Sang realized she was lying atop Nathan in his bed. Their legs were tangled together. She curled herself against his bare chest, nestling a knee high up in between his legs, to try and syphon some of his body heat into herself.

Nathan grunted and pushed lightly at her thigh, guiding her leg to not cuddle _quite_ so close. "As much as I like having a Sang-blanket to keep my toasty, where did the real blanket go?" he asked.

"You must have kicked it off," Sang replied while rolling off of him. She clutched his bicep as she did so, trying to get him to roll with her. It was Nathan's turn to be the blanket. She wanted to be sandwiched between the mattress and him to trap the heat all to herself.

Nathan chuckled sleepily as he draped himself over her tiny frame. "I'm not the one who steals blankets. That's you."

"Nuh uh," she whined through a yawn. "You have me mistaken for someone else."

"You're right," Nathan said as he buried his face into the crook of her neck. His voice came out muffled through her hair. "Luke is the one who does that."

"Why does everyone always blame Luke?" Sang asked.

Nathan didn't answer. Instead, he planted a loud and sloppy kiss on her pulse point before shoving himself into a pushup. In the blink of an eye, he was on his knees and looking around his darkened bedroom.

Sang's teeth chattered as her skin became exposed to the cold, nighttime air again.

"My blanket is gone," Nathan said.

Sang rolled over once more toward the edge of the bed and peered over the side. There was just enough illumination from twilight outside to show an empty floor.

Nathan leaned over the other side, then the foot of the bed to continue the search. "It's not here."

Where could it have gone? Blankets didn't just walk away in the middle of the night. Maybe Luke snuck in while they were sleeping and played a joke.

Sang rolled her eyes at her thoughts. Now _she_ was blaming Luke for things that probably weren't his fault.

"We need to check on Max," Nathan said in a firm and serious tone. He had switched to protective Academy mode in an instant.

Sang had forgotten about Max until Nathan mentioned the dog-person's name. The night prior, they tucked Max in to Nathan's dad's bed in the master bedroom. They both made sure Max understood he was to wake them if he needed anything.

The poor man was distraught at being separated from the Lee Family and spending the night away from his home, but Sang didn't know what to do to comfort him. On a whim, she taught Max how to make a Facetime call to Kota, then stuck around to supervise. The few minutes seeing his master's face confused Max since he wasn't able to smell Kota as they spoke. However, the call did manage to calm his nerves a bit. Sang bid them goodnight after reclaiming her phone.

Nathan quickly shoved his legs into a pair of gym shorts before padding through the house. Sang followed close on his heels, anxious to see if Max was okay.

The door to the master bedroom was purposefully left open so Max would not feel isolated. It remained open this morning, allowing the teens through to see this bed also without blankets. Even the pillows and sheets were missing. So was Max.

"Call Kota," Nathan ordered. "We need to search the rest of the house, but maybe Max snuck off to Kota's house." He moved further into the bedroom to start his security sweep in the adjoining bathroom, followed by the closet.

"But why would all the bedding be gone?" Sang asked.

"I don't know," Nathan's voice traveled from the closet, where he was shoving clothes on hangers to the sides. "But we're going to find out. Call Kota."

Sang rushed back to Nathan's room on light feet, eyes scanning for signs of Max on the way. To her disappointment, no clues jumped out at her.

She snatched up her pink-cased phone, opened up the app with the calculator icon, and then mashed the black button. Her knees pressed into each other in an attempt to quell the sensations her body was trying to signal; she had yet to answer Mother Nature's call that morning. The urge could wait a couple more minutes. Other matters were more pressing.

"Sang?" Kota's voice said through the cellphone.

"Is Max over there by chance?" she asked a little too quickly, exposing her anxiety.

"No. He's not. What's happening?"

Sang paced in the bedroom for a couple laps before spilling out into the hallway. "Max isn't where we left him. Nathan and I are looking through the house."

"I'm on my way. You two stay there," Kota commanded before the call abruptly disconnected.

Sang heard Nathan in the kitchen, opening all the cabinet doors and searching the pantry in a thorough sweep for Max. Not able to ignore her bladder for much longer, she figured she could spare the minute to take care of her need before joining her friend.

Switching on the bathroom light, she whirled around and sat on the toilet after lowering her sleep shorts and panties to her knees. She froze the moment her business was done, for the sound of movement within the shower stall beside her put her on full alert.

"Sang. Girlfriend," a scratchy voice echoed off the tilework. A head poked out and around the stone-tiled half wall at the level of her shins. The head yawned and blinked at her.

She tried to screech, but her voice choked up. The head yelped and hid behind the shower wall again as Sang lurched for the door and crashed into it. Her hands tried to simultaneously pull her clothes back up and turn the knob. In her panic, however, the multitasking didn't go so well. Her mind prioritized safety over modesty, enabling her to successfully open the door and tumble out into the hallway in a heap.

Nathan heard the commotion and ran up a second later. He paused upon finding Sang, confused by her partial state of undress paired with wide-eyed distress. "What's going on?" he asked as he took her hands and helped her standing, doing his best not to let his eyes linger over places a gentleman wasn't supposed to look.

Once on her feet again, Sang pulled her clothes back up, using the second of time to also unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth. "I think I found Max."

The toilet flushed, and Max stepped out of the bathroom, turning off the light on the way. The t-shirt and gym shorts he wore were rumpled and wrinkled from sleep. His orange-blonde hair was in a similar state.

"Bad, Sang," he said as he booped her nose with a fingertip. It caught her by surprise and made her flinch. "Luke said to always flush after going potty."

Sang and Nathan were dumbstruck. They stood still next to each other with mouths hanging open as Max's arms reached over his head in a stretch.

The sound of the front door opening and closing had all three looking to the front of the house. The moment Kota came into view, Max bolted. He glomped Kota in a full force, flying tackle hug. It sent Kota reeling and falling on his back to the floor.

"Kota!" Max exclaimed in glee as he sat on Kota's legs. "I missed you!" He attacked Kota's face with excited licks. Kota turned his head one way to hide his cheek from Max's over enthusiastic attention, but the man-dog would only start lapping at the other cheek.

"Okay there, Tiger," Nathan said, as he looped his arms under Max's armpits and dragged him off Kota.

Max looked over his shoulder to Nathan. "I am not a tiger. I'm a man."

Nathan chuckled. Kota sat up and wiped the drool off his face with his hands. "I see you found Max."

"Sang did," Nathan said, giving the credit where it was due.

"That doesn't solve the mystery of the missing blankets, though," Sang said as she tugged on Kota's hand to help him back up to standing.

Kota blinked down at her once he was up. "Blankets?"

"I know where the blankets are!" Max cheered as he took off for the bathroom. The three teens followed and filed into the small room after him.

Max was bent over within the shower stall, his butt the only thing visible around the half-wall from Sang's perspective. After a couple seconds, Max started tossing out pillows and blankets into the floor at their feet.

Kota cracked up laughing. "I should have accounted for this," he said in between peals of laughter. "He usually sleeps in his crate at night. He wanted a confined space to feel comfortable."

"He made a nest in the shower with all the blankets…" Nathan muttered, shaking his head back and forth.

Over breakfast, Kota caught the rest up with the situation at his house. "I told Mom and Jessica that I mistakenly put your collar in the wrong notch after giving you a bath yesterday," he said to Max. "The collar was too loose, and you managed to slip out of it while on your lead in the yard to go chase a squirrel. They think we've been looking for you in the woods all afternoon."

Max was crestfallen. It was obvious he missed Erica and Jessica.

"Mom left messages at the local animal shelters to keep a lookout for you and your chip number," Kota continued. "Mr. Blackbourne wants to come over later this morning to discuss a cover story to introduce you as a man, and to come up with living arrangements and plans for the future."

"When is Mr. B showing up?" Nathan asked.

"Closer to lunchtime," Kota answered.

"Do we have any plans until then?" Nathan inquired.

Kota replied as he gathered up empty breakfast plates. "I was hoping to teach Max how to read."

The next few hours, everyone helped teach Max the alphabet. He picked up the ABC song quickly, though his singing skills were a bit lacking. Monotone, really. Poor Max was tone deaf.

Every time Max did something right, he was rewarded with shelled peanuts. His handwriting steadily improved, from jagged lightning bolts to shaky straight lines drawn by ballpoint pen. When the boys weren't looking, Sang taught Max how to draw a heart. She couldn't help but giggle after he learned how to write his own name along with Kota's. Three whole sheets of paper got devoted to messily scribbled, "MAX KOTA," front and back.

"Is it supposed to rain today?" Nathan asked as he looked out a window. Dark clouds were rolling in and blocking the sun.

"Yeah," Kota answered. "Chance of isolated thunderstorms."

Sang noticed Max getting antsy. Even with the positive reinforcement peanuts, keeping him focused on the differences between capital letters and lowercase was becoming more difficult. Was he nervous about the rain? Doubtful. The first night they met was in the rain, and Max was fine then. "What's the matter?" she asked him.

"Mail time," he answered with the undertones of a growl. His feet were tapping incessantly on the floor as he forgot about his literacy lessons.

Nathan noticed and heard too. He glanced at a wall clock. "Did anyone teach Max how to read time? Because he's right. Now is about the time the mail gets delivered."

Kota shook his head. "He's always been good with keeping time. He knows when meals are served and when Jessica has to get up for school. His internal clock is spot on."

Max caught all three teens by surprise when he shot up out of his chair and charged out the front door. "Bad man!" he shouted as he sprinted down the driveway and along the street toward the Lee house.

"Damn!" Nathan cursed as they gave chase. "Not this again!"

To their horror, they found Max practically wrapped around the mailman's arm as it stuck out the side window of the boxy white Jeep. Max was snarling madly. The mailman frantically screamed and thudded his other fist down onto Max's shoulder blades.

The first raindrops fell as Kota shouted commands for Max to release and heel. The orders went unheeded. Instead, Max uncurled himself and sprinted through Kota's back yard, heading for the arch of trees into the woods. A brown-wrapped package smaller than a shoe box was cradled into his arms like a football.

"He fucking bit me!" The mailman wailed as he crawled out of the jeep, waving around his arm where blood was starting to trickle out from the back of his hand.

Sang stood in the street, pressing her lip to her teeth as she watched, not knowing what to do and getting nervous about the rain starting to steadily become heavier. Kota looked back and forth from the postal worker, the same one from yesterday, and towards the woods. He wanted to apologize and tend to the wounds of the mailman, but he also needed to find Max.

"Take care of things here," he barked at Nathan before jogging to the back yard.

"Bring that back!" the mailman yelled in the direction where Max disappeared. "It's not for you, you damned schizo!"

Nathan did his best to placate the man and try to inspect the bite marks. "I'm very sorry for our friend's behavior, sir. No need to press federal charges for stealing mail. He belongs to this house."

He looked up to find the mailman's eyes glaring with a furious blaze. "I'm not talking about a federal offense, you dimwit! That's a fucking bomb, and it's not intended for that pill popper!"

Nathan and Sang blanched ghostly white at his words. Jessica opening up the front door of Kota's house and poking her head out snapped them out of their stupor. "What's going on?" she asked curiously.

Nathan whirled and subdued the postal worker with flawless jiu jitsu technique. The mailman kissed the street with a grunt. "Go get Jessica and lock yourselves in!" he yelled to Sang. She instantly jumped into action. "Call Mr. Blackbourne and tell him to hurry his ass up!"

Sang made it in in the front door, slammed it shut, and flipped all the locks just as the rain became a downpour. She guided Jessica further into the house by the shoulders as she pulled out her phone and disobeyed Nathan's command. She dialed Kota first, holding up a finger to signal to Jessica that she had to wait for her questions.

"Kota?" she said into the phone once it picked up. Her voice was shaky. "It's a bomb."

"What?!" Jessica and Kota said simultaneously.

Sang gulped. "He's carrying a bomb. Be careful." She hit end and opened up the app with the violin icon. Tears were running down her face. Jessica was in a panic. Right as Sang's thumb touched the green button, thunder rattled the windows.

Sang sank to her knees. She knew that wasn't thunder.


	11. Chapter 11

Kota counted the beeps of the heart monitor every minute. Max's pulse was 49 the minute prior. This one, he projected would be 48.

 _Thirty two…thirty three…thirty four…thirty five…_

Kota could easily crunch the math for an accurate estimation of Max's pulse with only ten seconds of counting. The mental math was easy enough for him. However, Kota didn't want the arithmetic shortcut. That would leave a whole fifty seconds in the minute for his thoughts to wander to dark places. The spare time when he didn't count reminded him of the aches, bruises, and general soreness of his own body, which probably didn't compare to whatever pain Max was feeling through his restless sleep.

So Kota kept counting. Beat after beat. Minute by minute.

Despite the counting, the events of the day prior still played on repeat in his mind's eye. He couldn't get the memories to stop.

The rain made it hard for Kota to track which direction Max went through the woods. Heavy water drops splashing against leaves still on the trees and on the ground drowned out the sound of Max's running footfalls. Kota had to rely on sight alone, scanning for movement that wasn't characteristic to the rain.

He wasn't expecting his phone to ring, but the fact it did with an accompanying zap to his butt didn't surprise him under the circumstances. The situation was certainly classified under 'chaos' at this point.

Kota answered the call, tilting his head far to the side to try and protect the phone from most of the rain as he ran, still tracking Max's retreating form.

Sang's news that the parcel Max had stolen was a bomb had Kota's blood turn cold.

"Max!" he screamed, not caring if his vocal cords would be strained later. "Release! Heel!"

They were far enough away to not damage any of the houses on Sunnyvale Court, based on the quick glance he'd had at the box and its dimensions. Of course, the contents could hold a blast much bigger than anticipated, depending on the chemistry of what was packed inside. Kota was mentally crossing his fingers that it wasn't big, hoping that _something_ would work in his favor. He just needed to get Max and himself a safe distance away. If things worked out perfectly, there was still plenty of time before it exploded. The mail carrier would want enough time to clear the vicinity if the bomb was set to a timer. Even better, it could be setup for remote detonation. He trusted Nathan to detain the mailman to prevent the use of whatever the trigger device was, if that was the case. No matter the method, Kota could use the mailman's want for self-preservation to Max's and his own advantage.

Kota ran up in time to see Max hurl the brown-wrapped parcel even further into the woods. Max then turned on his heel as the package sailed through the air.

Kota was starting to pivot to lead Max back home when the bomb went off the moment it hit the ground. The jostle had to have bypassed the delay mechanism and set it off prematurely.

The boom was deafening. Kota couldn't hear anything other than a whining ring as he pushed himself up from the soggy ground. He didn't remember how he got to the ground in the first place.

He scanned his surroundings. Debris was still falling alongside the rain. It all seemed surreal, like reality was a dream, without being able to hear the pitter patter of raindrops and plops from clumps of mud falling from the sky.

Kota's ankle burst with pain as he tried to put weight on it, and his other thigh was stiffening up as each second ticked by. Those were minor concerns. He had to find Max. Max was Family. Family first. Max took #1 priority right then.

Max wasn't far. He was lying face down at the foot of a tree. A raised root was his pillow, elevating his head enough so he didn't drown in the puddle an inch away from his face. His hair looked mousy brown from being drenched and caked in mud.

Kota tried to say his name as he limped over, but he couldn't hear his own voice. Once close, he could see Max was breathing, albeit shallowly.

"Max," Kota tried to say again. At least, he mouth formed the words, and his lungs pushed air through his mouth. He couldn't tell if any sound was actually produced over the monotonous whine in his ears. "Max?"

"Max…" Kota said in the hospital room, sitting next to his faithful companion who was still unconscious on the bed. Kota could hear everything now. Especially that heart monitor.

Kota looked to his watch. A new minute. Reset count. One…two…three…

Mr. Blackbourne leaned through the half-ajar door and knocked twice with a knuckle to announce his entry. Once fully within the threshold, he closed the door all the way. He unbuttoned his suit jacket as he perched himself on the edge of the second and empty bed.

"How is your leg and ankle?" he asked cordially.

Kota huffed, annoyed the pain in his leg decided to flare back up with the mention of his own injuries. "Just some deep muscle bruising and a sprained ankle. The brace and pain pills are doing their job."

Mr. Blackbourne nodded, like Kota's answer was what he had expected to hear. "The postal worker has been handed over to the FBI for domestic terrorism," he informed. "From initial interviews, he admitted his extremist dislike of the American military, stemming from bad experiences with his own enlistment with the Army."

Kota snorted in disgust, peeling his eyes away from the oxygen mask affixed over Max's mouth and nose. "He's not very wise to be admitting his guilt so easily."

"Indeed," Mr. Blackbourne agreed before continuing. "He confessed to seeing Ms. Lee out for a jog wearing the Marines PT shirt a week ago, making her a target for his aggression."

Kota wanted to get riled up. He wanted to be mad. This crazy mailman had it out for his mom over a t-shirt? Kota was too exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally, to invest into rage. There was no point in that. The loon was already being processed by the right people. Instead of trying to summon up anger, Kota counted Max's heartbeats again.

His secondary thought processes put two and two together from his memories. "Max knew. He noticed the new mailman a week ago. Mom saw how Max didn't like him from the get go, and Max never could approach him because he was tethered up." Max had been trying to protect his family from the beginning, but everyone, including Kota, had attributed it to typical dog behavior.

"Have Erica and Jessica been by yet today?" Mr. Blackbourne asked.

Kota nodded as he leaned forward to press his elbows onto the bed right next to Max's arm. "You missed them by forty seven minutes. Mom wants me to come home since I've been officially discharged. They said thank you to Max and left him flowers." He nodded to a vase full of violet chrysanthemums set up on the window ledge. "They think he's a benevolent stranger, Mr. Blackbourne. They don't know who he really is." Kota gathered up Max's hand, the one without the IV tube inserted below his wrist. The plastic hospital bracelet stated the name 'Max Rover.'

Mr. Blackbourne stood and circled around the foot of Max's bed. Once within reach, he placed a hand comfortingly on Kota's back.

Kota arched over Max's hand, cradling it against his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Max. You're a good boy. I should have listened to you. _Please_ wake up."

Mr. Blackbourne let Kota have this moment, rubbing his back soothingly and as a silent sign of support. He knew his boys didn't particularly like to show such emotional turmoil, especially in front of each other. Yet, Mr. Blackbourne knew Kota needed this episode, to let it all out.

A few minutes later when Kota composed himself again, Mr. Blackbourne crouched beside Kota's chair to meet him at eye level. "We'll take care of Max, Kota. Anything that it takes. Dr. Green and I incurred the cost for his stay here."

"No!" Kota shouted, then immediately realized how loud he was. Lowering his voice to a harsh whisper, he said, "Max is _my_ responsibility. _I_ will incur."

Mr. Blackbourne's steel eyes twinkled in admiration. He liked how Kota wanted to shoulder the responsibility himself, always worrying for the ones he loved. That was one of the qualities that made him into a Team Lead.

"Request denied, Mr. Lee."

"But…"

Mr. Blackbourne clapped a hand onto the side of Kota's neck in a sign of brotherly affection. "Max is a part of _our_ family. We carry each other. Let Dr. Green and me carry this burden as part of our gratitude for Max's valiant and heroic act."

Kota clasped his hand over Mr. Blackbourne's and nodded, accepting the terms. Kota was grateful. They both knew he couldn't really afford Max's surgery to remove the fluid buildup on his brain, along with the other expenses with the rest of the hospital stay. Kota didn't have any grounds to argue.

"Now," Mr. Blackbourne said as he rose from his crouch to stand again. "You two have a couple more visitors to entertain. I'll show them in."

"Thank you, Mr. Blackbourne," Kota said quietly as the older teen reached the door.

"You're welcome, Kota," Mr. Blackbourne said before slipping out.

The next two people to enter were Gabriel and Sang. Both boys could see how Sang's heart broke all over again as she rushed over to give Kota a hug. Then tears escaped her as she greeted Max, cooing words of encouragement as she pet his mop of hair.

"Oy! Didn't we agree beforehand we were going to keep this visit happy and farts of sunshine?" Gabriel said to Sang after he wiped away one of his own tears. "We need to shape up, Trouble!"

Sang sniffed and nodded her agreement before thrusting something she was carrying out and toward Kota. It was gift wrapped.

Kota took the present curiously and unwrapped the paper carefully by slipping his finger under the seams, separating the tape from the paper.

"God dammit, Kota!" Gabriel cussed with his hands shooting over his head. "When are you going to learn wrapping paper is meant to be _ripped_ off?"

"It doesn't matter how it comes off, Gabe," Kota retorted with a hint of a smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, it does fucking matter. Give it to me," Gabriel demanded while reaching out. "I'll do it right."

Kota turned to keep the present out of Gabriel's reach. "Too late. It's already done," he said as he pulled the paper away in one piece. "There's less mess to clean up now."

Gabriel muttered and plopped onto the unused bed.

"Do you like it?" Sang asked with wide and sparkling eyes. "Meanie took me to get it framed."

Kota looked over every inch of the gift. It was a sheet of paper with unsteady handwriting. Written in every direction and in varying sizes with ballpoint pen was "MAX KOTA". It was framed like a portrait.

"I…I thought…" Sang stumbled over her words nervously. "I thought this will last longer than flowers."

"It's perfect," Kota said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and brought her in for a hug. After placing a kiss on her forehead, he added, "I love it."

"I brought some North-approved munches," Gabriel said as he rolled over a lap table and started setting up plastic storage containers of fresh vegetables from a backpack. Carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, green olives, and baby pickles got arranged around a container of ranch dressing.

"Did we remember the chopsticks?" Sang asked as she perched next to Gabriel.

"Yup!" Three pairs of disposable, bamboo chopsticks came out of the backpack and were passed around.

Kota limped over and took a seat on the edge of Max's bed, across from Gabriel and Sang, so their vegetarian feast was between them. "Why do we have chopsticks with finger food?" he asked.

"Dr. Green," Sang answered as she tried to position the pair of wooden sticks in her fingers, "wants me to practice eating with them for Japanese class."

Kota nodded and smiled as he pulled his own pair apart and expertly picked up a cherry tomato, dipped it lightly in the ranch, and popped it into his mouth. Gabriel held similar skill with his own pair taking on an olive.

Sang was having issues picking up a broccoli floret. After stabbing the vegetable with a pointy end, she let her gaze linger on the unconscious man behind Kota as she chewed. This was her first time seeing Max since he'd run off into the woods. She knew she promised to stay positive for everyone's sakes, but seeing him in that hospital bed, wrapped up in a generic hospital gown and medical tubing, made the task difficult.

"He's going to be okay," Kota assured, both for Sang's benefit alongside his own.

Fate had a way of punctuating Kota's affirmation by accelerating the beeps of the heart monitor. The screen by the bed read a number well over 200 beats per minute. Kota felt Max's leg twitch against his back, followed by the entire bed shaking. Kota quickly stood and whirled around to find Max's entire body violently convulsing.

Chopsticks fells and clattered to the floor. Sang stared at Max with wide eyes. "What's happening?" she asked, fear evident in her voice.

"Seizure," Kota replied instantly as he shuffled hurriedly around the foot of the bed to reach for the Nurse Call button. On the way, he barked, "Go into the hall and shout for help!"

"Wait!" Gabriel shouted as Sang sprang to her feet. "Don't press it!" he said to Kota, whose finger was merely an inch away from the button. "Look!"

A light emanated from the center of Max's twitching and jumping body. In less than a second, the shine grew and brightened until it enveloped all of Max and blinded the three teens hovering around him. Kota, Sang, and Gabriel flinched and had to shield their eyes behind their arms.

When the light subsided and vision returned to the trio, they found a golden retriever hopelessly tangled in the hospital gown and yards of clear, plastic tubing. The dog whined and struggled atop the sheets. The mask was stuck under his chin, not able to deliver oxygen to his nose or mouth.

"Max!" the teens cried in unison, happy and confused at the same time. Three sets of hands immediately set upon removing the medical equipment from the squirming canine.

"Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck," Gabriel eloquently cussed. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

Once Max was free, Kota hopped on the bed and gathered the mass of orange fur into his arms for a hug. "Greenline Dr. Green," he ordered as he squeezed Max tight. "Don't scare me like that ever again," he whispered into Max's neck. Max whimpered an apology and licked Kota's ear.

"Yeah, Doc?" Gabriel spoke into his phone. "Patient Zero has developed…uh…a _rash_. A hairy one. _Where?_ All over his body. He has an extra appendage now, too."

At the mention, Max's tail wagged and thumped against the mattress.

"Patient Zero is ready to be discharged," Gabriel said cryptically to Dr. Green.

Sang got the hint and started cleaning up their vegetable snack and any other evidence of their visit. Gabriel ended the call and slipped his phone into his pocket. "Doc is going to run interference. I have an idea on how to smuggle Max out of here," he said with a mischievous glint in his crystal blue eyes.

A short time later, Sang sat in a wheelchair, albeit rather uncomfortably. Her butt was perched on the edge of the seat, for Max was huddled up right behind her. Her arms were shoved through a trench coat, and the back of the garment draped over the full sized dog. When the effect was matched with a scarf tied over her hair, a crocheted lap blanket tucked over her thighs, and a makeup job from Gabriel that featured age spots, Sang appeared to be an 80 year old, hunchbacked woman.

Kota hobbled alongside the Sang-Max duo in the wheelchair, whispering words of encouragement and reminders to sit still to Max. Gabriel pushed the chair from behind.

"Oh, Granny Ethel!" Gabriel hammed up the charade as they traveled the Academy hospital halls. "I'm so glad your colonoscopy went so well. When will you have to do this again?"

Sang blushed so red, she was surprised the makeup she wore didn't melt off her face.

By the time the entourage made it down the elevator and to the lobby to wait for Gabriel to fetch Kota's car, Max was getting antsy, despite Kota's encouragement to be still. Granny Ethel's hunchback was starting to squirm.

Once the dark green sedan was idling in front of the sliding glass doors, Gabriel and Kota angled themselves to shield Sang and Max from the view of the receptionist lady within the lobby. The moment Sang leaned forward and pulled up the hem of the trench coat, Max leaped from the wheelchair into the back seat of the car. Sang quickly followed and settled in. "Fido!" she attempted to play along, pitching her voice to be lower and scratchy as she imagined an old lady's voice might sound. "So thoughtful of you to escort me home from the hospital!" She rubbed behind his ears, and Max licked her arm.

Gabriel didn't do well to hide his amused giggles as Kota shut the back door. As Kota crawled into the front passenger side, Gabriel wheeled the chair back into the lobby for someone else to use later. By the time Gabriel got in behind the wheel, Kota was already talking into his cell phone.

"Go to Dr. Green's place," Kota said. "Doc is going to meet us there to give Max a look over."

"I'm no veterinarian," Dr. Green said as he pulled his stethoscope away from Max's ribs, "but from what I can tell, Max has made a full recovery. There are no more burns, cracked ribs, bruises, or anything."

" _Do you believe in magic?"_ Gabriel sang from his seat in the living room of the purple-painted condo. Sang giggled. Kota smirked.

Dr. Green stood upright and planted his fists on his hips. "Do you feel alright?" he asked Max.

Max nodded his head up and down in a strangely human gesture from where he sat on top of the coffee table.

"Ready to go home?" Dr. Green asked.

Max nodded again as he tail swept back and forth.


	12. Epilogue

"Are you putting jewelies on yours? Or glitter?"

"Why not both?" Jessica replied.

The other girl in Jessica's bedroom shrugged, making her voluminous and tight curled hair flounce on her shoulders. "Okay then. Both. I'm going to try that tape trick to get stripes on mine."

A family finally moved into that house down the street. Sang admitted one time to Jessica that she was going to camp out in that house before it was finished being built, but she said Kota convinced her it was a dumb idea. Sang was weird.

Jessica decided it was best not to share the eccentricities of her brother's girlfriend to the people who moved in. That would probably scare them away, and she wanted to be friends with the girl that looked to be just her age.

After knocking on their door that afternoon, Jessica introduced herself to the new family and found out the girl's name was Saria. Saria was taller and had skin the color of caramel candy with black sprinkle freckles all over her cheeks. Saria's mother promptly shooed them away for a "playdate" while the grownups unpacked. The moment the door closed, the girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They knew they were too old for "playdates." Young women like themselves went to go "hang out" with each other. That other word was for babies.

When they arrived back at the Lee Residence, the girls were nearly trampled by Kota, Sang, Silas, and Gabriel trying to rush out the door. There was a traffic jam of bodies in all sizes in the garage.

Gabriel told the girls to help themselves to the nail polish left out in the living room. The lot of them piled into cars and drove off. Kota's school probably called them up. Kota's school was weird.

Inside, Jessica and Saria made themselves lemonades then inspected the array of manicure paraphernalia set up on the coffee table. From the dozens of colors available, they picked a few and retreated to Jessica's bedroom. There, they got to know each other as they applied coats of nail polish like they knew what they were doing.

"Were there tweezers out there?" Jessica asked as she inspected a sheet of little rhinestones, careful to try and not smear the light pink color on her fingernails.

"Yeah, but I didn't grab them," Saria answered. "There was only on girl of them, right?"

Jessica nodded.

"Then why so much nail polish? Were they all getting manicures?"

Jessica shrugged and stood up from her perch on the side of her bed. "My brother and his friends are weird."

Saria laughed. "I think all brothers are weird. I have a baby brother, and he likes to stick carrots down his diaper." She put down the little scissors and roll of clear tape from where she was trying to cut out little shapes and joined Jessica. "Hey, what's this?" Something pretty and shiny on the dresser caught her eye.

Jessica stepped over and looked at what Saria's lime green nail was pointing at. "Oh, that?" She nudged it with a knuckle. "It's a wish stone. They say that it grants a wish to a girl who has a pure heart. It was my turn to try it out. You can have a go at it now."

Saria's eyes widened in wonder. "Does it work?"

"You know what?" Jessica said with a smile lifting her lips. Carefully, she lifted the chain and held it open so Saria could slip her head through. "I think it does. I wished to make a friend, and here you are!"

"Aw! That's so sweet!" Saria cooed and struck a dramatic pose to showcase her new jewelry. They both went to look for the tweezers and back to the kitchen for more lemonade, laughing the entire time at ridiculous wishes they could have asked for. Their ideas ranged from the largest peanut butter and banana sandwich in the world, to their very own bouncy playhouse to jump in whenever they wanted.

As the pair carefully clutched their glasses to sip the lemonade, Saria's eyes kept scanning around the house and out the windows for curiosity's sake.

"Oh em gee! You have a dog?!" she cried upon seeing reddish-orange fur scrape a paw through the dirt in the back yard.

Jessica nodded. "That's Max."

"I want a dog, but dad's allergic. Can I pet him?"

"Stay here. I'll bring him inside."

Jessica set her glass on the counter and went out back. During the few days Max was gone, she was convinced he abandoned her. His absence broke her heart.

Then there was all that crazy stuff with the mailman and the bomb. That was pure bad luck, as far as Jessica was concerned. Of course, that had to happen when Max wasn't there. If Max was at home, he wouldn't have let that fiasco happen to begin with.

She did not sleep those few nights. She didn't feel like home was home unless Max was around. She didn't feel safe after the bomb. Then Kota was gone for a night to stay with that stranger that took the bomb away. Jessica was grateful for the man's help. She picked out the flowers herself when her mom took her to visit Kota and the guy at the hospital. However, having her older brother absent from the home that night didn't help her relax at all either.

Then a day or two later, Kota came home. He drove his car into the driveway, and Jessica watched as he opened the back door of his ugly green car, and the most handsome dog leaped out of the back seat. Jessica ran out of the house squealing, which scared their mom. Jessica didn't care. As soon as she went out the door, she and Max tackled each other. Max covered her face with licks. Jessica clung around his neck as she cried, not caring if her brother saw the tears or not.

Now, standing in the back yard, she smiled. She was glad Max was home. Things were back to normal. Well, as normal as things got around their house.

Max sat on his haunches with his tail wagging back and forth, swishing dirt around behind him. His tongue hung out the side of his mouth as he panted, and it made him look like he was grinning goofily as his honey brown eyes sparkled at Jessica.

Something was scratched into the dirt beside Max. Jessica had to tilt her head to recognize a pattern to the lines and curves that looked like someone drew with a stick.

 _MAX_ _JESSICA_

"Max?" Jessica scrunched her eyebrows at the family dog. "Did Kota do this?"

She swore he swung his head back and forth in a 'no.'

"Did _you_ do this?"

Max woofed and jumped up excitedly, shoving his nose into her hand for pets.

Jessica giggled to herself as she carefully undid the hook from around his collar. She loved him, but Max was weird.

 **A/N: And that's it, folks! Thank you for reading, all the votes, and comments. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I have writing it.**

 **Now, I'm absolutely positive I will come up with supplementary one-shots around Max the Man. Consider them his lost adventures since he only got to run around on two legs for a mere two days in this story. I don't know when, but once a one-shot gets chugged out, I'll be posting them as additional chapters on the end of this story. So! Even though Max is considered to be complete, please look forward to more material popping up randomly in the future.**

 **And now I leave you with his signature head tilt (this is my first try at the multimedia on Wattpad, so forgive me if I muck it up).**


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